Details
ISLINGTON
TQ3084NW CALEDONIAN ROAD
635-1/44/121 (East side)
Nos.408-416 (Consecutive)
Burns House, Caledonian Estate
GV II
Block of flats forming part of the Caledonian Estate, designed
and built c.1904-6 by the Housing of the Working Classes
Branch of the London County Council Architect's Department,
the architect responsible being, probably, J.G.Stephenson. The
Caledonian Estate consists of five blocks: Carrick House to
the west, overlooking Caledonian Road, and then four blocks at
the back of the site, forming a square, Irvine House to the
west and Wallace House to the east being longer than Burns
House to the north and Scott House to the south; apart from
the entrance arch in Irvine House, the opposite blocks in the
square match each other; and they are linked by brick arcades
of three round arches.
Burns House is of red brick in English bond with dressings of
glazed brick and plaster, wrought iron, cast iron and
reinforced concrete, roof of tiles. Five storeys. All windows
are segmental-arched sash windows, except where stated, and
all have late C20 glazing which echoes the arrangement of the
original sashes and casements. The front facing into the
square is symmetrical, and made up of five elements. There is
a centrepiece with two windows, those to the fourth floor
flat-arched casements with a buttress-like strip between them,
the gable having a double curve and 'shoulders'. On either
side of this there is a 'balcony' range, the ground floor in
the form of a buttressed screen with segmental-arched openings
to ground-floor flats and the staircase, the parapet of the
screen acting as a balustrade to the first-floor balcony; on
the first, second, third and fourth floors the flats are set
back, and have flat-arched entrances and windows under
segmental arches, one of the three entrances on each balcony
now blocked; on the second, third and fourth floors the
balcony is of reinforced concrete, and they are linked
vertically by iron pipes terminating in brackets at
fourth-floor level. The outer ranges have one window from
ground to third floors, the third-floor window being
flat-arched under a round arch; the corners are chamfered, and
on the fourth floor the return to the balcony is also
chamfered, so that the fourth floor is polygonal in plan, with
three flat-arched casements, and parapeted. Hipped roof,
central ridge stacks, stacks to rear slope and corbelled
external stacks, the latter truncated.
The north elevation has a central range of four windows,
flat-arched to the fourth floor under a double-curved
'shouldered' gable; ranges of two windows to either side under
eaves, the fourth-floor windows flat-arched casements; then
outer ranges of three windows under a hipped roof between
'shoulders', the windows to the first, second and third floors
under a round arch at third floor level, and flat-arched to
the fourth floor.
(Historians' file, English Heritage London Division).
Listing NGR: TQ3066884731
