Carrick House, Caledonian Estate And Attached Railings

Carrick House is a block of flats forming part of the Caledonian Estate, designed and built around 1904-1906 by the Housing of the Working Classes Branch of the London County Council Architect's Department, probably under the architect J.G. Stephenson. The Caledonian Estate comprises five blocks: Carrick House stands to the west overlooking Caledonian Road, while four blocks are arranged at the back of the site in a square formation. Irvine House and Wallace House, forming the longer sides to the west and east respectively, are paired with Burns House to the north and Scott House to the south on the shorter sides. Except for the entrance arch in Irvine House, the opposite blocks in the square match each other and are linked by brick arcades of three round arches.

Carrick House is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with dressings of glazed brick and granite, and a tile roof. It rises four storeys below the eaves, with a fifth storey partly in gables and partly as dormers in the attic. The front elevation facing Caledonian Road is set out symmetrically with five-storey gabled ranges alternating with four-storey ranges with dormers. A distinctive feature is the "shouldered gable" treatment, whereby the gable proper covers only the central part of each range, while the outer part rises into parapeted shoulders flanking the lower part of each gable. All windows are segmental-arched sash windows except where noted, and all now have late twentieth-century glazing that echoes the arrangement of the original sashes and casements.

The centrepiece features a round-arched carriage entrance that is shouldered, multi-ordered, and detailed in glazed brick and granite, rising through the ground and first floors with a corbelled and arcaded quasi-balcony above. The two central windows in this four-window range are set back slightly on the second, third, and fourth floors. The outer windows to the third floor and all those to the fourth floor are flat-arched; the third-floor windows sit under a round arch of gauged brick with a plastered tympanum, while the fourth-floor outer windows are casements. A semi-circular gable sits over the central set-back windows, with a shoulder formed by an embattled parapet.

On either side of the centrepiece is a range of five windows set slightly back, with flat-arched windows to the third floor set under round arches between piers, deep eaves, and flat-arched dormers. These are followed by a range of four windows where the inner windows to the fourth floor are flat-arched casements under a round arch with herring-bone brickwork in the tympanum and separated by buttress-like strips. This range has a shouldered gable with embattled parapets. Another range of four windows set slightly back follows with similar detailing including deep eaves and flat-arched dormers. The outer ranges comprise two windows set back under a hipped roof between embattled parapets; the third-floor windows are flat-arched under round arches, and the fourth-floor windows are flat-arched casements. Ridge stacks punctuate the roofline.

The rear elevation is set out symmetrically with a central range under an embattled parapet, followed by narrow ranges to either side with canted staircase bays, a range of four windows under a shouldered gable, another staircase range, and wings with three windows under a hipped roof between embattled parapets.

Cast-iron railings extend along Caledonian Road for approximately twenty metres either side of the main entrance. They connect to much-decayed stuccoed end piers and comprise a cast-iron plinth, railings with spearhead finials, bracketed standards with pineapple finials, and grouped standards at the entrance end that originally formed gate piers. These ranges of railings connect the building at either end by lower ranges of spearhead railings.