Top 7 Architectural Wonders Of Islington

This remarkable site was once the headquarters of the company responsible for bringing fresh water into London through the New River. The former Metropolitan Water Board building, designed by Herbert Austen Hall and constructed between 1915 and 1920, is an imposing piece of civic architecture. Its most extraordinary feature is hidden inside: the Oak Room, a richly decorated interior dating from 1693, transferred from the earlier Water House that once stood here. The wider site also preserves industrial structures connected with the waterworks, including an engine and pump house and the base of a windmill built in 1707–08. It is a rare place where the history of London's infrastructure can still be read in the buildings themselves.

When Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton group designed this health centre for Finsbury Borough Council in the 1930s, they were making a powerful statement about what public architecture could achieve. Opened in 1938, the building used the clean lines, modern materials and generous glazing of European Modernism, but its purpose was profoundly practical: to make good healthcare accessible to ordinary people. Lubetkin's famous principle was that nothing was too good for ordinary people, and the building was designed to feel bright, welcoming and progressive rather than institutional. Its distinctive façade, curved forms and carefully composed entrance make it a landmark of British Modernism. Grade I listed, it remains a working healthcare building.

This extraordinary townhouse was designed by Piers Gough of CZWG for journalist and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter, and built between 1986 and 1988. It is a wonderfully individual example of Postmodern architecture: an angular composition of brickwork in graduating shades, a vivid blue glazed-tile roof, diamond-patterned metal screens and balconies that seem to have been designed to challenge the idea of what a London townhouse should look like. Even the entrance is deliberately concealed behind a gated courtyard. The building responds to the proportions of its Georgian neighbours while refusing to imitate them. Historic England describes it as an extrovert and ostentatious example of Postmodern domestic architecture, and its Grade II listing recognises just how unusual it is.

The domed building at the Angel junction is one of Islington's most recognisable architectural landmarks. The present Angel Corner House dates from 1903 and was designed by Eedle and Meyers. Its prominent corner position, decorative exterior and distinctive dome were intended to make it stand out in one of London's busiest intersections. The building has had several lives, including its celebrated period as a Lyons Corner House, when it was a major restaurant and meeting place. Its name also has an unusual place in popular culture: Angel Islington became a property on the British Monopoly board, uniquely named after a real building rather than a street or district. Look up at the dome and you can see why this corner was made to be remembered.

Beside the Regent's Canal at City Road Basin, Diespeker Wharf preserves a fascinating fragment of Islington's industrial past. The site was developed between 1896 and 1914 and was initially used as a timber yard. From 1926 it became home to Diespeker, an Italian terrazzo manufacturer whose name survives in the distinctive chimney rising above the buildings. The three-storey brick structure retains clues to its working life: cast-iron internal columns, loading bays, a courtyard crane and even a small railway track running beneath the building. Materials could be unloaded directly from barges on the canal and moved into the works. It is a brilliant example of industrial architecture designed around the practical business of moving, storing and manufacturing heavy materials.

The Orion Building, part of London Metropolitan University's Holloway campus, brings a very different architectural language to the collection. Designed by Daniel Libeskind, the Graduate Centre is a striking contemporary composition of sharp angles and intersecting forms, with a sculptural quality that makes it look almost as though the building has been folded into shape. Libeskind is known internationally for architecture that uses geometry, movement and dramatic spatial relationships to create a strong emotional response. Here, the building stands out against the more conventional streetscape of Holloway Road, making the university campus itself a destination for anyone interested in contemporary design. It provides a fitting final contrast to the older industrial, civic and residential buildings elsewhere in the list.