Details
TQ 3183 NW; 635-1/58/608
ISLINGTON,
LONSDALE SQUARE (west side),
Nos. 25-48 (Consecutive) and attached railings
(Formerly Listed as: LONSDALE SQUARE (West side) Nos.1-11, 34-40, 43-48 (Consecutive); previously Listed as: LONSDALE SQUARE Nos.12 & 33; formerly Listed as: LONSDALE SQUARE Nos.13-27, 28A-32 (Consecutive))
29/09/72
GV
II*
Terraced houses. c.1838-1845. R C Carpenter. White and yellow
brick laid in Flemish bond, stucco, roofs of Welsh slate apart
from nos. 28, 34 and 45 which are of asbestos slate. Four
storeys over basement except for nos. 28A and 44 which are of
three; and two windows each apart from nos. 28A and 44 which
are of one. The common features of all houses, apart from nos.
28A and 44 are: basement and ground floor of entrance bay,
with stucco detailing, deep splayed reveals, hoodmoulds and,
where of more than one light, mullions; stacks to party walls;
cast-iron railings to area with fleur-de-lys finials.
There are broadly four designs in the terrace: (1) Nos. 25,
25A, 26 and 27 have a Tudor-arched entrance under a dripmould
brought out flush with the window bay to form a single-storey
porch, the entrance surmounted by a stepped parapet enclosing
a blank lobed quatrefoil; the entrance itself is Tudor-arched
with a sidelight and door of four vertical panels; except that
no. 27 has a Tudor-arched entrance without a porch and with an
overlight of three quatrefoils in the style of nos. 28-43.
Windows to first and second floors of entrance bay of two
lights, to ground; first and second floors, the latter
retaining some foliage ornaments; the third floor treated over
the window bay as a shouldered gable with one single-light
window with no hoodmould, and over the entrance bay as a
stepped parapet except that no. 27 has a simple parapet.
(2) Nos. 28-43. Tudor-arched entrance with overlight in the
form of three quatrefoils, and door with four vertical
panels; windows over entrance bay of one light, and to ground,
first and second floors of window bay of three lights; moulded
storey band over ground and second floors, the latter
retaining some foliage ornaments; the third floor is treated
over the window bay as a shouldered gable with one
single-light window with no hoodmould, and over the entrance
bay as a parapet.
(3) Nos. 28A and 44 have only an entrance bay to the square.
Tudor- arched entrance with overlight in the form of three
quatrefoils, blank on no. 44; moulded storey band over ground
floor, single-light windows to first and second floors;
parapet.
(4) Nos. 45-48. Tudor-arched entrance brought out flush with
the window bay to form a single storey porch, and surmounted
by a stepped parapet enclosing a blank, lobed quatrefoil, the
entrance proper Tudor-arched with a sidelight to the left and
door of four vertical panels; except that the entrance of no.
45 has no porch, and an overlight in the form of three
quatrefoils as on nos. 28-43. Windows over entrance of two
lights, and to ground, first and second floors of window bay
of four; moulded storey band over ground and second floors,
the latter retaining foliage mouldings; the third floor is
treated over the window bay as a shouldered gable with one
single-light window with no hoodmould, and over the entrance
bay of nos. 46 and 47 as a stepped parapet; on no. 45 there is
simple parapet over the entrance bay and on no. 48 the parapet
has presumably been altered to this form.
Features of individual houses are: no. 25 has a right-hand
return with storey bands continued from the square, two stacks
corbelled out at the level of the lower storey band, and one
third-floor window; no. 48 has a left-hand return with similar
storey bands and corbelled stacks, but with cambered-arched
windows to the first, second and third floors.
Many interiors noted to retain staircases, unusual moulded
cornices and simple fire surrounds with cast-iron grates.
Only the façade of no. 44 is listed.
Lonsdale Square, by the pioneering Gothic church architect R C
Carpenter and of which this forms half, is novel in being in the
Tudor Gothic style, and survives little altered inside and out.
It is a unique, intense and immaculately composed piece of design.
Listing NGR: TQ3125683990
