15, Coldharbour

788/0/10183 COLDHARBOUR 31-JUL-03 Isle of Dogs 15

II House, 1843. Stock brick, rendered; stone cills and coping. Three storeys with attic. Slate roof. PLAN: Rectangular plan with staircase along north wall. Two rooms per floor with partitioned/glazed central sections (wc's) opposite stair. EXTERIOR: Two bay front to street. Door to left of infilled opening. 9/9-pane sashes. River front now part-concealed by a c.1995 concrete platform supporting a glazed sun lounge at first floor; tripartite openings to first and second floors. INTERIOR: ground floor comprises a former mast-making workshop, partly sub-divided with board partitions and internal glazing, with heavy exposed lateral beams. Plain stairs to first floor; upper flights are of good quality, with upswept mahogany handrails, turned columnar newels, spiral-turned posts to first floor, and plain square rails. Extensive survival of original joinery, including richly reeded door and window architraves to first floor rooms. Fireplace with reeded surround to first floor front room. Upper floors are plainer but largely intact. Two-panel doors to attic with lozenge-pierced overdoor panels. HISTORY: this house was described as 'lately erected' in 1845, and was built in 1843-44 for his own occupation by Benjamin Granger Bluett, a joiner, mast- and blockmaker whose workshop was on the ground floor over a saw-pit. An earlier structure of c1770 stood here. In 1894 the house was acquired by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and was adapted to form part of a reception centre for immigrants displaying signs of contagious illnesses: the interior of the ground floor was subdivided at this time and extensions (now removed) were added to the south side of the house. The house is listed for its largely intact interior of the early 1840s, and for its docklands interest as a now-rare survivor in this area of a purpose-built workshop with living accommodation above. The 1890s alterations also represent a phase of interest in the building's development.

SOURCE: Survey of London vol XLIV, Poplar, Blackwall and the Isle of Dogs (1994), 616-17.