Description

ISLINGTON

TQ3182NW WILMINGTON SQUARE 635-1/68/906 (North West side) 29/09/72 Nos.25-37 (Consecutive) and attached railings

GV II

Thirteen terraced houses. On a pedestrian walk along the north side of square. 1829-1831. By John Wilson, builder for Lord Compton and the Spa Fields Estate. Yellow stock brick laid in Flemish bond with banded stucco ground-floor and stucco dressings; roofs obscured by parapet (except no. 25 with Welsh-slate mansard), brick party-wall stacks. Side-hall entrance plan with staircase. Three storeys with basement (and attic to no. 25 only); 2 windows each plus 3 windows (all blind) to right (Wilmington Street) and 1 window to left-hand (Yardley Street) return walls. Symmetrical group with projecting end-houses and nos. 31-32 being a centrepiece, breaking forward. Steps rise to entrance (nos. 25 and 37 with 1-storey entrance extension): round-arched doorway set in narrow stucco recess with fluted 1/4 column jambs carrying corniced-head, plain fanlights, and panelled door (nos. 29, 31, 34, 36 original). Ground-floor round-arched sashes with mostly 6/6 curved and radial glazing bars and all but nos. 27, 28 and 31 with cast-iron window guards. Gauged-brick flat arches to upper storeys except 1st floor sashes to ends and centrepiece which are gauged-brick round arches. 1st floor stucco sill band beneath full-length 6/6 sashes with individual and coupled (no. 37 only) cast-iron balconies supported by iron brackets. Double stucco sill band to 2nd floor 6/6 sashes. Stucco moulded bands beneath cornice and blocking course. Attached cast-iron railings with urn finials. Wilmington Square was created from the Earls of Northampton's Spa Fields Estate, which in 1817 the 9th Earl assigned to his heir Lord Compton. The subsequent building in Wilmington Square was one of London's 1st post-Waterloo developments. Progress was piecemeal: the south terrace was the 1st and grandest; the north terrace (nos. 25-37) was not completed until 1831. For financial reasons the square was reduced in depth and thus became a backwater on the fringes of estates. It was the north terrace that was most drastically altered: it was built well short of Margery Street and has only 3 floors with a high pedestrian walk rather than a street front. (The Squares of Islington: Cosh, M: The Squares of Islington Part I: Finsbury and Clerkenwell: Islington: 1990-: 93-98).

Listing NGR: TQ3115882602

External Links

• Wikidata Q27080360

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Recommended Books

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  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
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  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
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  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
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  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability