One building really stands out in Charterhouse Square because of its unique appearance – an Art Deco, 1930s building standing in a background from the Middle Ages. This is Florin Court, a ten-storey block of flats, at Nos 6–9 Charterhouse Square. It is the most striking building on the east side of the square.
The sleek modern design of the building was by the architects, Guy Morgan & Partners, who specialised in flat developments in the 1930s. The most striking feature of their design for Florin Court is the curving, flowing, walls with no corners or sharp edges. Apart from looking marvellous, the practical purpose was to enable as many of the flats as possible to have views over Charterhouse Square.
The plans had to be approved by London County Council. Their normal rules on blocks of flats required the top floor to be set back from the front line of the lower floors. (I have no idea why this would be important!). In this case the LCC were persuaded to give permission for the recessed central part of the block to be taken up to the full height of the block without any set-back. But they still insisted on the top floors of the projecting wings on each side being set back. This compromised the intended clean lines of the building but at least allowed the occupiers of the top flats to have small roof gardens.
Builders called J. Gerrard & Sons Ltd, constructed the building in 1937 at a total cost of £74,000. It was build with a steel frame. Light-coloured, high-quality bricks were used. These were made by Williamson Cliff Ltd, brick makers from Stamford, and they may have secured the project because they were already doing work in Charterhouse Square – they supplied the bricks for the coat of arms of Charterhouse over the entrance to the Charterhouse at the back of Charterhouse Square.
Another of the architects’ innovative design features was Florin Court’s cantilevered entrance canopy which was covered in copper and sheet steel. This entrance structure complemented the flowing design of the front walls themselves. (This was later replaced unfortunately.) The entrance hall has a marble floor which is inset with the Charterhouse’s coat of arms.
The developer was called 1937 Charter Estates, and they were carrying out the development for Charterhouse Ltd. So, it would seem that this was a project for the Charterhouse itself. That would explain why the entrance hall had the Charterhouse’s coat of arms embedded in the marble floor.
Florin Court was a speculative development. The people at The Charterhouse knew from their local knowledge that many businessmen worked at Smithfield Market and had to be there from very early in the morning. They thought that pieds-à-terre almost next to the market would appeal to them. So the architects designed the building’s internal layout to create lots of bed-sits – studios in today’s parlance.
The total number of flats was 126. Of those most were studios, but one flat per floor had two bedrooms and a sitting-room.
In the basement, there was a restaurant, a cocktail bar, and a clubroom. Beneath that was a garage with parking for twenty cars. A single-storey building containing two squash courts was built behind the main building. To top it all off, there was a roof garden. It was all very imaginative and innovative for the time – or any time.
I assume the flats must have been rented because the block was refurbished in the 1980s and that must have required all 126 flats to be vacant.
So, in 1988, it was Regalian Properties who totally refurbished and modernised the block. It was only then, in 1988, that the block acquired the name, ‘Florin Court’.
The architects for this project were recorded as Hildebrand & Glicker, with one of the partners, Stephen Bodimeade, actually running the project. Before this renovation scheme, some of the flats had been turned into offices; but Regalian turned all properties back into residential flats. The roof garden had fallen into disuse but this was reinstated. The most imaginative part of the project was the creation of a private swimming pool in the basement, and jacuzzis. But they also removed the wonderful entrance canopy and replaced it with the rather more utilitarian version that exists today.
Florin Court today is famous far beyond the borders of Clerkenwell, not as Florin Court but as ‘Whitehaven Mansions’, the home of Agatha Christie’s fictional detective, Hercule Poirot. Florin Court featured as Hercule Poirot’s home in the television series ‘Poirot’, starring David Suchet, which ran on ITV from 1989 to 2013 (and will no doubt be repeated for decades to come),