Description

CAMDEN

TQ3181NW LEATHER LANE
798-1/102/1770 Nos.51-75 (Odd)

GV II

See under: Bourne Estate (southern part); formerly Union
Buildings Estate LEATHER LANE.

CAMDEN

TQ3181NW LEATHER LANE
798-1/102/1770 (West side)
Bourne Estate (southern part);
formerly Union Buildings Estate

GV II

Includes: Nigel House 1-71, Laney House 1-72, Kirkeby House
1-45, Buckridge House 1-30 LEATHER LANE.
Includes: Nos.11, 11A AND 12 PORTPOOL LANE.
Includes: Nos.51-75 LEATHER LANE.
Housing estate built by the London County Council. 1905-9.
Designed by LCC Architect's Department (chief assistant for
scheme EH Parkes, under WE Riley). Elevations of yellow and
red bricks with some blue and glazed bricks. Portions of
elevations towards Leather Lane and Portpool Lane stuccoed.
Brick chimneys, slated roofs. Stone string courses, parapets
and segmental arches. Concrete open stairs and balconies with
iron railings. Wooden sash and casement windows. Free
Classical style, with Arts and Crafts touches, developing the
idiom established by the LCC Boundary Street and Millbank
Estates in a formal direction.
EXTERIOR: 5-storey flats with balcony access; some portions
with sixth storey in roof. Enclosed layout, with Kirkeby and
Buckridge Houses in parallel on a north-south axis behind
frontage. Open courtyard (formerly with crazy paving and
cobbles) between Kirkeby House and Laney House. Laney House
and Nigel House form a continuous perimeter along Leather Lane
and Portpool Lane respectively, the latter parallel with
Redman House on north side of Portpool Lane (see Clerkenwell
Road, Nos 87-121, Bourne Estate, northern part (qv). Some
later alterations.
Laney House: elevation to Leather Lane with shopfronts between
granite piers on ground storey. Upper portions with brick
quoins and alternating between 3 and 4 full storeys with deep
cornices, the centres of the 3 lower portions having rubbed
brick pilasters with Ionic capitals rising to triangular
pediments (two removed after war damage). Dormers in roof.
Curved corner between Leather Lane and Portpool Lane with
giant pilasters in stucco running through upper storeys. Rear
elevation with ground storey projecting, terminated by high
parapet wall with chequered brickwork pattern; the windows at
this level now filled in. Balconied elevations above and
complex roof line.
Kirkeby and Buckridge Houses: similar in design, with plain
brick elevations in one direction having slightly projecting

ends with triangular pediments and centres with segmental
pediments, both with quoins; rear elevations irregular, with
open stairs and balconies and some distinctive glazed-brick
entrances towards Laney House.
Nigel House: long elevation to Portpool Lane, aligned with
Redman House on north side of Portpool Lane and identical in
design, with solid ground and first storeys of channelled
brickwork and alternating sections of plain brickwork and
giant pilasters above. Continuous moulded parapet, and dormer
windows in roof. Rear with quoined projections and broad
triangular pediments over arched entrances, open stairs and
balconies, and angled projection through 4 storeys near west
end of group.
INTERIORS not inspected.
HISTORICAL NOTE: listed as part of the last of the 3 major
centre-city housing estates built by the LCC before the First
World War, with a different layout and approach from Boundary
Street Estate (Tower Hamlets) and Millbank Estate
(Westminster). A significant precursor in form and style of
inter-war housing estates throughout Britain, and influential
on tenement housing throughout Europe. This southern portion
of the estate was a slum-clearance scheme, conceived and
probably designed before the northern portion but built later.
Forms a group with northern part of Bourne Estate, Clerkenwell
Road (qv).

CAMDEN

TQ3181NW LEATHER LANE
798-1/102/1770 Nigel House 1-71, Laney House 1-72,
Kirkeby House 1-45, Buckridge House
1-30

GV II

See under: Bourne Estate (southern part); formerly Union
Buildings Estate LEATHER LANE.

CAMDEN

TQ3181NW PORTPOOL LANE
798-1/102/1770 Nos.11, 11A AND 12

GV II

See under: Bourne Estate (southern part); formerly Union
Buildings Estate LEATHER LANE.

Listing NGR: TQ3123481892

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27086683

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)