North Block With Attached Railings And Gatepiers Peabody Estate

This is a north block with attached railings and gatepiers, part of the Peabody Estate, built in 1866 to the designs of Henry Darbishire. It forms part of a larger development arranged around a rectangular courtyard. The building is constructed of brick in English bond, with a hipped slate roof and tall brick stacks. It has a rectangular plan and a long side with an eleven-window range. The building is six storeys high, divided into three horizontal bands: a two-storey base, a three-storey middle section, and a top storey treated as an attic. Sill bands mark these divisions, and a deep bracketed cornice sits at the top. Brick banding is visible on the ground storey. Blind brick roundels are placed between the second and third-window ranges and between the ninth and tenth-window ranges. The short returns feature rectangular projections, which were originally common kitchens, set with narrower windows. All windows are timber sash windows with glazing bars. The central door has been modernized for security. Originally, an open stairwell was located at the rear of each block; this has been infilled with brick since the war. The interior retains a staircase with a cast-iron balustrade. Cast-iron railings and gatepiers are present at the street frontage.

The Peabody Trust was established by the American philanthropist, George Peabody, to provide housing for London’s “artisan and labouring poor.” The Shadwell estate, with its four blocks arranged around a square, became a model for subsequent Peabody Trust developments, establishing a distinctive and dignified architectural style. An earlier development on Commercial Street, Tower Hamlets, was somewhat different, but the Greenman Street, Islington, and Shadwell estates set the precedent.