Business Design Centre

Details

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

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

369412

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.