Leopold Buildings With Stores And Attached Railings

This is a philanthropic block of flatted accommodation with attached shops and lower blocks, built in 1872 by Sydney Waterlow's Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, with design contributions from Waterlow and builder Matthew Allen. The building is located on Columbia Road and extends to Hackney Road. It is constructed of brick in Flemish bond, with cement dressings and concrete floors; the roofs are parapetted.

The building comprises four and five storeys, stepping down to Nos. 2-12, which were built to a slightly different design. Nos. 2, 6, 8, and 12 have tripartite windows, while the remaining properties have paired windows. The design features a broken join with the taller blocks, with similar lintel bands and dressings. A pierced parapet finishes the elevation.

Leopold Buildings proper (flats Nos. 1-79) has a broad half-basement area, railed and accessed by stone steps at five points, leading to an open-well staircase. Recessed four-storey ranges alternate with four-storey and attic ranges, creating a varied parapet line punctuated by recessed and railed balcony ranges, characteristic of Improved Industrial Dwellings Company designs. Each balcony recess is flanked by canted bays with panelled spandrels, extending from the basement through the first floor to a second-floor balcony. All windows are flat-arched. A lintel band runs along the first floor, while a bracketed entablature and corbel table feature on the third floor and attic storey, topped by a pierced parapet to the flat roof. The recessed balcony ranges comprise two bays each, with a central brick pier featuring metal filigree spandrels to the floor slabs and flat-arched openings. The rear elevation is plainer, with utilitarian projecting structures originally intended for sculleries and WCs.

The main elevation’s height and simple style, typical of Improved Industrial Dwellings Company blocks, are softened by varying heights and the lower commercial ranges towards Hackney Road. The standard Improved Industrial Dwellings Company balcony-stairwell recesses create a lively silhouette. Leopold Buildings forms a distinctive architectural whole, contributing to a dramatic and memorable streetscape.

The Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, founded in 1863 from Sydney Waterlow’s housing experiments, was a key provider of inexpensive working-class housing in late 19th-century London, alongside the Peabody Trust. Leopold Buildings exemplifies the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company’s approach of integrating blocks into existing streetscapes, unlike the Peabody Trust’s courtyard estates.