Pentonville: Former Georgian fire engine house

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 28 Jul 2013

This non-descript photograph taken on the corner of Chapel Market and Penton Street shows an extremely rare surviving example of a Georgian fire engine house, being the brickwork block with the infilled rendered archway on the left (99 Chapel Market). Dating from 1792 it is a Grade II Listed Building. Immediately behind it the terrace of houses (50-56 Penton Street) date from slightly earlier, in 1784, and form part of the first phase of the residential development of Pentonville, the large estate owned by Henry Penton, MP. Again this group form a Grade II Listed Building. The single storey shops to the right are late Victorian having been built out across the front gardens of the houses. Would they get planning permission today? These shops are not shown on the large scale Ordnance Survey map of 1874 but are present on the map of 1896, both of which show the road known today as Chapel Market as Chapel Street.

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