Description

ISLINGTON

TQ3183NE UPPER STREET
635-1/59/881 (West side)
29/09/72 Business Design Centre
(Formerly Listed as:
LIVERPOOL ROAD
Royal Agricultural Hall)

II

Business Design Centre. Incorporates the symmetrical brick
front to Liverpool Road of the former Royal Agricultural Hall,
and the hall behind it under an iron roof of single span.
Dated 1862 on central clock. The architect was F.Peck, the
engineers for the hall James Handyside and Company of Derby,
the builders, Hill Keddell and Robin; alterations were made at
later dates, notably by Cheston and Perkin; in 1985 the
building was altered and renovated by Renton Howard Wood Levin
Partnership as part of the Business Design Centre with a new
front entrance facing into Upper Street.
The Liverpool Road front is of yellow brick with dressings of
red and white brick and stone, roofs of slate to the towers,
the rest probably of fibreglass. Two storeys and mezzanine,
three storeys to towers. The front is set out as a centrepiece
with ranges of five windows set back to either side, then
towers, then ranges of three windows set further back. The
walls are banded with red brick at several levels including
sill and springing bands, and window-heads are generally of
gauged red brick. The centrepiece has three entrances flanked
by superimposed pilasters and under stilted segmental arches
with heads of gauged red brick in which gauged white bricks
give the effect of voussoirs; fanlights, panelled doors of
original design; moulded brick storey band; recessed panel and
six small flat-arched windows to mezzanine, all under a giant
round arch flanked by superimposed piers, the arch itself of
gauged red brick with 'voussoirs' in white brick; modillion
cornice; parapet with central aedicule containing a clock
under a round arch of gauged red brick.
The five-window ranges have flat-arched entrances either side
of the centrepiece, with 'ENTRANCE' inscribed in a
segmental-arched panel above, and narrow round-arched windows
to the ground floor, with a moulded springing band of red
brick; stucco sill and storey bands (possibly originally of
red brick) above and below small, flat-arched, mezzanine
windows; first-floor windows round-arched and set back under
massive heads of gauged red brick; stucco springing band;
stucco cornice, parapet. The towers are blank to the ground
floor; decorative grille to mezzanine between band of red
brick and stucco; two small round-arched windows to first
floor; storey band above cornice level of neighbouring range;
moulded stucco sill band to two tall two-light round-arched
windows with elaborate moulded springing band, keystone and
heads of gauged red brick; the centre of each side brought
forward over these windows and crowned with a bracketed
pediment at cornice level; curved pyramidal roofs in the
manner of a French pavilion, with cast-iron openwork crown and
finial.
Each of the outer wings has a broad, segmental-arched carriage
entrance to the centre flanked by two round-arched windows;
stucco storey band; three round-arched windows to first floor,
all set back in round-arched panels. Original metal glazing
bars survive generally. Early C20 range to north-west corner.
INTERIOR: . The central space of the hall, thirteen bays long
and six wide, survives. Cast-iron columns with four brackets
in the place of capitals act as supports for the structure of
the aisles, and of the central hall; the latter is roofed with
metal trusses forming round arches and having decorative
openwork in cast iron at their feet and their apex; the
structure of the aisles now partly obscured, though the
arrangement of circle, semi-circle and cross-panel survives in
the gallery, on a level with the springing of the main roof
arches, and there are decorative cast-iron panels to
balustrade; late C20 roof of fibreglass, and fibreglass facing
to tympana at either end.

Listing NGR: TQ3145083559

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Business Design Centre at Wikipedia
• Business Design Centre official website
• Wikidata Q7373586

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

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)