Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 9 November 2021 to update the name and address and to reformat the text to current standards

635-1/59/353

ISLINGTON
CROSS STREET (South side)
No. 53-59 (Odd) and attached railings

(Formerly listed as 53-59 Numbers 53-59 (Odd) and attached railings)

29-SEP-72

GV
II

Row of four Terraced houses. C.1768, built by Benjamin Williams, carpenter. Yellow brick set in Flemish bond, yellow gauged brick arches to windows; roofs repaired with clay tiles. Three storeys over basement except no 53 which has dormers in mansard roof; two windows per floor, 2/2-pane plate glass sashes.

EXTERIOR: Steps up to flat-arched entrance with wooden doorcase of pilasters supporting open pediment, overlight and panelled door. All windows flat-arched with gauged brick heads; parapet with stone coping has been rebuilt. Party walls project above roof and carry stacks. Cast-iron railings to front areas.

INTERIORS: these are reported by the Survey of London as retaining many original features, of a similar design throughout the houses indicating their unified development. That to No.53 is representative, retaining much original wooden panelling and partition walls. Staircase with turned columnar newel posts, paired at half-landings. Remains of copper and other early kitchen features in basement. Angle-set wooden chimneypieces to back rooms on each floor: that to ground floor with marble slips and dentil cornice. Walls of entrance hall retain extensive remains of stencilled decorative paint treatment, comprising a Gothic arch with rosette motifs executed in blue, grey and black.

HISTORY: lying on part of the copyhold property of the Manor of Canonbury, these houses stand on land owned in the mid-18th century by the Tufnell family. The south side of Cross Street was laid out in 1767, and largely occupied by 1779. Benjamin Williams, carpenter of Islington, was responsible for the construction of a number of these houses. Their internal configuration, containing much wooden construction and joinery, reflects the prominent role of a carpenter in their construction. The painted stencilled decoration, imitating wallpaper, inside No.53 is a very unusual survival, and shows the application of fashionable Neo-classical decoration to houses of the middling sort.

SOURCES: 'The History Man', Observer Magazine, 23 May 1999, 68-69; English Heritage, London Region historians' report ref. ISL 17.

Listing NGR: TQ3175383965

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26585579

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

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)