The Cardamon Building

The Cardamon Building is a warehouse range dating from 1884-86 and 1891-92, later converted for retail and residential use. It is located on Shad Thames, with returns to Curlew Street and Lafone Street. The building is constructed of stock brick with white brick dressings and Portland stone coped parapets, presenting a front elevation of 19 bays, and returns of 5 bays (one blind) to Curlew Street and 3 bays to Lafone Street. The height varies between 4 and 6 storeys, with 4 storeys to the Curlew Street return.

A four-bay section at the corner with Lafone Street contains ground and mezzanine floors, now occupied by offices and shops. These are framed by cast-iron pilasters with lotus leaf capitals and have cast-iron mullions to broad window frames. A girder entablature returns along Lafone Street, featuring similar pilaster details. The rest of the range has a pedimented door and three hatch ranks with bull-nosed reveals, along with pale brick segmental arches to the windows. Similar windows are found on the returns.

A notable feature of the front elevation were steel gangway bridges, now replaced with replicas, connecting the building to the Butler's Wharf riverside range on the opposite side of Shad Thames.

Inside the four-bay section, a brick vaulted basement supports a double-height ground floor with encased circular cast-iron columns supporting a timber floor. Similar cast-iron and timber construction is seen on the upper floors. The building’s internal structure includes brick jack vaults supporting the ground floor, cast-iron columns supporting similar vaults and a concrete screed to the first floor, and cast-iron cruciform columns supporting timber floors on the upper levels. The warehouse range has a vital connection to the Butler's Wharf riverside block, together forming the longest group of surviving bridged warehouses in the Docklands.