Site Analysis Land Use The overriding use in the immediate vicinity is commercial, with some of the adjacent buildings being City Road City Road mixed use (residential + commercial). However, the wider area presents a large number of residential buildings, both to the east (Peregrine House) and to the west (City Road terraces). Residential Commercial Mixed use Wakley Stret Wakley Stret Building heights The majority of the buildings in the area present a consistent height of 3-4 storeys. There are a few notable exception, most notably Peregrine House (18 floors tower block) and the taller buildings along Goswell Road. Goswell Road Goswell Road 1-2 levels 3-4 levels 5-6 levels Peregrine House Peregrine House 7+ levels Land use diagram Building heights diagram Movement The majority of traffic moves along City Road up to the junction with Wakley Street, where it becomes one-way. Wakley Street and Goswell Road take about half as much traffic (being one-way). Hall Street absorbs only a limited amount of traffic, mainly for local access. Urban Grain The original fine Victorian grain which is still visible to the north of City Road has been lost almost completely due to bomb damage and has since been replaced with larger city blocks with internal courtyards. Movement diagram Urban grain diagram Redevelopment of 7-8 Wakley Street and 328 City Road 15 Site History 1799 Horwood’s map 1894 OS map 1901 Goad Plan 1799 1894 1901 1939 1954 Today Extending from Finsbury Square in a long westerly curve Street) by 1810. Straddling the margins of the ancient workshops and factories. The sale and dispersal of what 804-820) were replaced by larger industrial units, leaving across Old Street to the Angel Islington High Street, parishes of Clerkewell and Islington, the parish boundary was called the ‘City-road Estate’ in 1892 in lieu of the only three (Nos 804-808 Hall Street) as houses, possibly City Road was part of the 18th century bypass around ran diagonally through the block and exerted a decisive extension of the City and South London Electric Railway used as offices. Much of the centre of the block on the north London. It was completed in 1761 and formed the influence on its evolving morphology and which is still (later absorbed into the Northern Line) seems to have west (Clerkenwell) side of the parish boundary was division between the former metropolitan boroughs of legible today as a high blind dividing wall. hastened the area’s industrialisation. occupied by the extensive, north-lit sheds of a firm of Finsbury and Islington. It was not until the last decade printers and bookbinders, Brown & Rowley & J. Trehern By 1900 the core of the island block was already of the 18th century that the western part near Angel was The long plots running back from the houses fronting & Co. Ltd. dominated by large factories. F. Mordan & Co’s works developed, and not until the early 19th century that the Hall Street, Sidney Street and Goswell Road mostly were particularly extensive, running back from No. 326a This firm erected administrative offices in the 1920s or wedge-shaped tract between City Road and Goswell respected the parish boundary, which facilitated the City Road along the line of the parish boundary. early 1930s fronting City Road at No. 328. Road began to be developed. creation of narrow courts, closes and workshops where small-scale industries developed. At this date No. 326 City Road was known as Albion The southern part of the block, facing Goswell Road was Until c1808, the triangular swathe to the north of what is House, and was occupied by the Central Finsbury dominated by a huge laundry (Initial Towel Supply Co.), now called Goswell Road was open land, but thereafter By the 1870s this island block comprised a dense Radical Club which erected a concert hall to the rear in whereas a range of smaller-scale enterprises fronted it began to be intensively developed. Nos 320 to 324 amalgam of Georgian and early Victorian terraced c.1900. onto Wakley (formerly Sidney) Street, including a cabinet and No 326 City Road development. houses with narrow courts and closes at its core, including Sidney Place and Parr’s Place. In common works and a plaster figurine works. By 1967 the two Industrialisation of the island block continued through The quadrilateral island block that 328 City Road forms with the surrounding area, small-scale industries largest occupiers were the laundry, which had expanded the early-mid-20th century. Most of the run of early part of emerged as a discrete entity only by the 1850s, developed, initially carried out in domestic buildings but into the (rebuilt) concert hall of the Central Finsbury 19th-century terraced houses along Hall Street (Nos following the creation of Sidney Street (now Wakley increasingly in the later 19th century in purpose-built Club, and the printers and bookbinders. 16 Redevelopment of 7-8 Wakley Street and 328 City Road 1939 Goad Plan 1954-55 OS map Current street map 1799 1894 1901 1939 1954 Today The principal exception to this predominantly mixed arranged on opposite sides of a small internal courtyard, block replaced two runs of 19thcentury terraced houses trade/industrial use was a public house, erected in the with the former printing works’ office serving as the new at Nos 330-336 City Road and Nos 15 and 16 Wakley post-war years at Nos 9-10 Wakley Street. office accommodation. Street. Industrial decline in the 1970s provided opportunities The east side of the site was bounded by the high blind for conservation-minded regeneration. In the early wall of the laundry, which was aligned to the parish part of that decade, the children’s charity Dr Barnado’s boundary. The cessation of the laundry in the 1980s purchased the former printing works including No. 328 provided a larger, two-acre, redevelopment site. This City Road and Nos 7 & 8 Wakley Street. was acquired by Mogul Securities Ltd/ Gable House Estates Ltd which employed Graham Moss Associates8 These buildings were purchased for the National to design a £20 million ‘office village’ scheme comprising Children’s Bureau, an umbrella organisation formed in 31 individual ‘cottage and terrace type’ low-rise brick- 1963 as the National Bureau for Cooperation in Child and-slate-roofed units, the renovation of two grade II Care that had outgrown its original offices. listed buildings (Nos 320-324 and No. 326 City Road). The architectural practice Daniel Watney, Eilorart, The most recent building of substantial scale was the Inman & Nunn were appointed to exploit the derelict, construction of a block of residential flats in c2000 concealed site of the printing works, erecting in named Angel Point at the corner of City Road and c1975-6 administrative offices, statistical research Wakeley Street. This six-storey (including mansard) accommodation, and a Children’s Centre . These were Redevelopment of 7-8 Wakley Street and 328 City Road 17 Conservation Area + Listed Buildings The northern portion of the site (328 City Road) lies within the Duncan Terrace and Colebrook Row Conservation Area. 328 City Road is neither locally nor statutorily listed, however. The following is an extract from the Conservation area design guidelines: The Duncan Terrace / Colebrooke Row Conservation Area is predominantly residential and largely made up of late Georgian and early Victorian terraces. There are also important commercial uses in the area which contribute to its character. The Regent’s Canal and City Road Basin are also important features, the former emerging from the Islington Tunnel at Vincent Terrace. A small section of the New River Walk also runs through the area. Overall the area has a remarkable architectural consistency, homogeneity and historic interest, which gives the area its special character and appearance and demand sensitive policies for preservation and enhancement. PPG15 states that the general presumption should be in favour of retaining buildings which make a positive contribution to the character and appearance of a conservation area. It also states that the assessment of a conservation area should always note those unlisted buildings which make such a contribution. While some buildings are protected by statutory listing, the Council considers that there are also many other non-listed buildings which are important to the historic and architectural character and appearance of the area. The existing character and appearance of the area is largely created by the surviving 18th and 19th century buildings, built of brick, render, timber windows and doors and slate or tile roofing. It is important that new buildings and refurbishment of existing buildings, blend in with and reinforce this character. Care must be taken with the choice of brick and bond. The forecourts of the properties in City Road have become little more than car parking areas. The Council will endeavour to reduce the amount of parking, replace tarmac with yorkstone or sets, increase tree planting and soft landscaping, and encourage the reinstatement of traditional ‘Strawberry Hill’ and spearhead railings where appropriate. Timber fences will not be permitted. Conservation Area Map 18 Redevelopment of 7-8 Wakley Street and 328 City Road City Road terraced houses, south side. Duncan Terrace Regents Canal Regent’s Canal St John the Evangelist Church, Duncan Terrace Redevelopment of 7-8 Wakley Street and 328 City Road 19 The Site The site is currently occupied by an office building in single occupancy by the NCB (who have occupied the premises for circa 35 years). The northern portion of the site lies within the Duncan Terrace and Colebrook Row Conservation Area. The existing building is composed of three parts: • A three storey building at 8 Wakley Street.