Islington Square homes: Upper Street sorting office conversion

The redevelopment of a former Edwardian postal sorting office into Islington Square — with 263 homes and new boutiques, bars and restaurants, a theatre rehearsal space, health club and cinema — is contained in a fashionable new quarter in Upper Street, N1.

The four-acre site had been closed to the public for generations, but its grand double-arched entrance, once only used by postal delivery vans, has been opened and a shopping arcade and civic square have been created behind the impressive façade.

A Zen garden and an acre of green space across the rooftops of restored buildings and new-build apartment blocks is part of the scheme.

Built in 1904, the centre was the main Royal Mail sorting centre for north London, with 3,000 workers and their refectory and club.

Classical red-brick buildings have been converted into loft-style flats above original loading bays, and there are penthouses with private roof gardens.

Butting up against a conservation area of garden squares and the Almeida Theatre, the key architectural element is a new pedestrian route from Upper Street via a "floating" glass-roofed internal garden that leads to the covered retail mall and an open-air, tree-lined boulevard with pavement cafés at the heart of the £400 million scheme.

Prices from £695,000. Call Knight Frank on 020 7723 6733.