Florin Court

Florin Court
Florin Court
General information
Type	Residential
Location	Charterhouse Square; London, EC1; United Kingdom
Completed	1936; 88 years ago
Technical details
Floor count	9
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Guy Morgan and Partners

Florin Court is an Art Deco residential building on the eastern side of Charterhouse Square in Smithfield, London.

The building has been used as Whitehaven mansions, the fictional London residence of Agatha Christie's character Hercule Poirot.^[1] in the LWT television series "Agatha Christie's Poirot" (1989–2013). As well as exterior filming, a number of interior shots of the building were utilised for this programme over the 24 years of production.

History

Built in 1936 by Guy Morgan and Partners who worked until 1927 for Edwin Lutyens, it features an impressive curved façade with projecting wings, a roof garden, setbacks on the ninth floor and a basement swimming pool.^[2] It was probably the earliest of the residential apartment blocks in the wider Clerkenwell district, immediately north of the City of London. The walls were built in beige brick, 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 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").

Since 1989 the building became the fictional residence of Agatha Christie's Poirot, known as Whitehaven Mansions.^[2]^[3] In 2003, the building was declared listed in the initial category of the national scheme.^[4] The windows' grouped into bands by exposed concrete surrounds' in the listing are of thin panes with thin muntins and brutalist mullions with all types of hangings permitted. They provide a stark reminder of the World War II era being of neither traditional nor economic design.^[2]

On Saturday 20 July 2013 a flat on the first floor caught fire and the building had to be evacuated.^[5]

Layout

The building is composed of nine floors and has a total of 120 flats. In the basement are a swimming pool, a spa, a sauna, a gym, a small library, a wi-fi area, a laundry room and a garage. All spaces are communal and access is free to all residents. There are two lifts.