
Angel Studios - Upper Street, Islington, London, UK
N 51° 32.270 W 000° 06.154
30U E 700932 N 5713616
This building was constructed between 1888 - 1889 as the Islington Congregational Chapel. It is now used as the Angel Recording Studios.
Waymark Code: WMF902
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/12/2012
Views: 1
The building is Grade II listed and the entry at the English
Heritage website [visit
link] tells us:
"Former Islington Congregational Chapel and school, now
a recording studio. 1888-9 by Bonella and Henry John Paull. Red brick laid in
Flemish bond, with dressings of stone (now painted), rubbed brick and possibly
stucco; clay-tiled roof. Two main storeys over basement. The front to Upper
Street has a two-storey wing to the north, and then the main, symmetrical
elevation of projecting gabled wing, side wings of one-window range, and
projecting, single-storey porches. In the 'Queen Anne' style, and showing the
influence of Richard Norman Shaw's Church of St Michael and All Angels, Bedford
Park. North wing has flat-arched entrance with architrave, storey band,
elliptical-arched first-floor window with impost blocks and apron of scrolled
profile, flanking pilasters, coving to eaves and pyramidal roof. The porches to
the main front have stone segmental-arched entrances with pilasters and cornice,
decorative wrought-iron gates and cresting to south porch. The projecting gabled
part has two elliptical-arched openings to the basement with recessed windows of
a different elliptical profile; four small round-arched windows above with a
crenellated storey band over; and then, rising through the main line of the
eaves into the gable, a large three-sided oriel with glazing in the tradition of
Sparrowe's House, Ipswich, and Richard Norman Shaw, except that the glazing here
and elsewhere in the building is of cast-iron, and made by the St Pancras Iron
Work Company. Scrolled consoles mask the slope of the mansard roof; cornice over
the oriel and date panel '1888' in the apex of the gable. Octagonal lantern on
the gable ridge. The side bays have first-floor segmental-arched windows with
aprons of decorative profile and windows set almost flush with the wall. The
elevation to Gaskin Street has a seven-window range, the easternmost bay
projecting as a porch with elliptical-arched entrance, pilasters, fanlight and
shell-mould hood with scrolled brackets. The windows reproduce the sequence of
Upper Street: elliptical-arched to basement, small round-arched above, and
segmental-arched to first floor with aprons of decorative profile and flanked by
pilasters. Coving to eaves; three blank cross-gables in the roof. Stack towards
south-east corner. Area railings with finials in the style of c.1800.
INTERIOR: : dog-leg staircase towards Upper Street with
square newel posts, some balusters of cast-iron with palmette ornament, others
of turned wood, moulded rail; this staircase now runs only from the basement,
through the raised ground floor to first-floor level; on the Gaskin Street side,
another staircase of similar design, rising from basement to gallery level. In
the former chapel the apse and the gallery at that end survive, with cornice to
the apse, the organ made by H.Speechly and Sons in a case in the style of
c.1700, the balustrade and three tiers of seats."
The Angel Recording
Studios has its own website [visit
link
] that has some photographs of the
inside of the building and information about the
studios.