Florin Court is an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

residential building on the eastern side of

Charterhouse Square Charterhouse Square is a garden square, a pentagonal space, in Farringdon, in the London Borough of Islington, and close to the former Smithfield Meat Market. The square is the largest courtyard or yard associated with the London Charterhouse, m ...

in Smithfield, London.

History

Built in 1936 by Guy Morgan and Partners who worked until 1927 for

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...

, and two years earlier successfully completed the similar

Cholmeley Lodge Cholmeley Lodge is an Art Deco / Streamline Moderne grade II listed residential building in Highgate, London, designed by architect Guy Morgan. Built in 1934 and taking its name from Sir Roger Cholmeley, (pronounced 'Chumlee') who owned the lan ...

Highgate Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross. Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisati ...

, it features an impressive curved

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

with projecting wings, a roof garden, setbacks on the eighth and ninth floor and a basement swimming pool. It was probably the earliest of the residential apartment blocks in the wider

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

area, immediately north of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury The Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury was a Metropolitan borough within the County of London from 1900 to 1965, when it was amalgamated with the Metropolitan Borough of Islington to form the London Borough of Islington. Formation and boundaries ...

, now

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

. The walls were built with beige bricks, specially made by Williamson Cliff Ltd (based in Stamford, Lincolnshire), and placed over a steel frame. Regalian properties refurbished the building in the late 1980s, to designs by Hildebrand & Clicker architects, providing today's interior layout and more facilities. Before the refurbishment, the ground floor included a porter's office and a flat for the head porter; the entrance hall had a marble floor inset with the arms of Charterhouse (now carpeted), and an inlaid ceiling covered the outside of the entrance door, before being plastered. In the basement, there were a public restaurant, a cocktail bar, and a clubroom. Behind the block, a single-storey building contained two squash courts (modified in 2015 into a two floors office space renamed "Florin Court Studios"). The three-story Georgian buildings that stood between 6-9

, before Florin Court used to be a vicarage and a lady's school until 1859, that was later converted into a staff dormitory once purchased in 1872 by Copestake, Crampton & Co. Ltd (lace manufacturers and wholesalers located in

Cheapside Cheapside is a street in the City of London, the historic and modern financial centre of London, which forms part of the A40 London to Fishguard road. It links St. Martin's Le Grand with Poultry. Near its eastern end at Bank junction, where ...

). Copestake, Crampton & Co. Ltd employees’ hostel housed up to 100 male and 18 female, but once the company started to move to

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

the building was sold to balance part of the loss due to the business slowing down around 1934. In 1989 the building became the fictional residence of ''

Agatha Christie's Poirot ''Poirot'' (also known as ''Agatha Christie's Poirot'') is a British mystery drama television programme that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. David Suchet starred as the eponymous detective, Agatha Christie's fictional Her ...

'', known as ''Whitehaven Mansions''. In 2003, the building was

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

Grade II. On Saturday 20 July 2013, a flat on the first floor caught fire and the building had to be evacuated. Consequently, the curved

required a major restoration work, that lasted for nearly a year, as some of the original materials used in the 1930s had to be sourced and found within the UK.

Layout

The building is composed of nine floors and has a total of 120 flats. In the basement are a swimming pool, a sauna, a gym, a lounge room with a small library, a

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

area, a laundry room and a garage. All spaces are communal and access is free to all residents. There are two lifts.

On film

The building has been used as Whitehaven Mansions, the fictional

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

residence of

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

's character

Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ('' Black Coffee'' and ''Alibi''), and more ...

, in the LWT television series ''

'' (1989–2013). As well as exterior filming, a number of interior shots of the building were used for this programme over the 24 years of production. In March 2019 the building was again extensively filmed, after being selected as home and neighbourhood of one of the leading characters of the

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

spin-off '' Pennyworth''. In 2022 the exterior is featured in the film ''See How They Run''. The home of character Melvyn Cocker-Norris and Gio.

Image gallery

File:Florin Court courved facade.jpg, Curved façade File:Florin Court swimming pool.jpg, Swimming pool File:Florin Court - Garden roof terrace.jpg, Garden roof terrace File:Florin Court from Charterhouse Square garden.jpg, Florin Court from Charterhouse Square garden File:Florin Court from Charterhouse Street.jpg, Florin Court from Charterhouse Street File:Florin Court roof terrace.jpg, Florin Court roof terrace File:Florin Court Leisure Centre.jpg, Leisure Centre File:Fire at Florin Court.jpg, Fire at Florin Court File:Fire damage at Florin Court.jpg, Fire damage at Florin Court File:Swimming pool after refurbishment.jpg, Florin Court swimming pool after refurbishment File:Floor plan at Florin Court.jpg, Floor plan at Florin Court File:Florin Court back side.jpg, Florin Court back side File:Back side, Florin Court.jpg, Back side - Florin Court File:Charterhouse Square.jpg, Charterhouse Square from Florin Court File:Florin Court roof terrace at night.jpg, Florin Court roof terrace at night Florin_Court_setbacks_and_balconies.png, Florin Court setbacks and balconies

References

External links

{{Use British English, date=March 2021 Art Deco architecture in London Buildings and structures completed in 1936 Grade II listed buildings in the City of London Apartment buildings in London Smithfield, London Streamline Moderne architecture in the United Kingdom