Golden Lane Estate
Cuthbert Harrowing House
Cuthbert Harrowing House is a terrace block. It looks over Fann Street at the front. At the back it looks over a paved courtyard towards Great Arthur House.
The properties here are all maisonettes on two floors. They run right through the building from front to back, and they face south at the front and north at the back. There are 18 maisonettes - most of them (14) have two bedrooms but there are 4 with 3 bedrooms. Each flat has its own staircase inside the flat connecting the two floors. There is a lower ground floor level as well as raised ground and upper floors, but there is no lift to the upper floors.At the front, the flats have a view over the Barbican. The front and back sides of the flats are mainly metal framed windows, with royal blue boards providing the decorative effect.
The building design bears the faint impress of the typical Victorian house with its basement area and stairs up to the front door. But here the ‘area’ is purely decorative, and there is no lower floor. It is more of a communal sunken courtyard, with steps down from Fann Street, and separated from Fann Street by metal railings. The area is about 15 ft deep and there are bushes and shrubs in flower beds at regular intervals.
The maisonettes are generally set a few feet back from the back of the structure. That means that the flat roof overhangs – and provides a porch for – the top maisonettes. The top maisonettes also have a balcony wide enough to put out chairs. The balcony then overhangs the lower floor maisonettes which, as described, have a smaller ‘balcony’ which is really the porch leading to the front door. The design is slightly muddled because the flats between the second and third piers are completely level with the front of the building, and two of the piers are set slightly back so that rain water pipes can be placed in front of them.
From the private courtyard, residents of the ground floor flats take 3 or 4 steps up though little wooden gates, into tiny front porches containing their front doors. The entrance to the upper flats is on the side of the building next to the roadway running from Fann Street into the parking area, with Bowater House on the other side. There are stairs right up the side of the building, which is entirely glazed.
The back of the house contains corridors on alternate floors so that the flat owners can gain access to their properties from inside the building. Behind the building there is a private – and rather desolate - courtyard below ground level between the house and Great Arthur House.
