In 1972 a Victorian terrace originally consisting of 8 separate houses was purchased by the London Borough of Islington and converted into a hostel for the homeless. Following the closure of the hostel this Listed property was purchased by Family Mosaic Housing. Consisting of eight 5-bed town houses, four 1-bed flats and two 2-bed wheelchair flats means an important building has been brought back into productive use. Being on a main thoroughfare the site presented a challenge for both noise abatement and security but there was also a need to improve thermal insulation. Each window was treated with a heavy-duty side-hung Casement, many 2.4m high.  The windows are accredited to Secured by Design and fitted with 11.5mm anti-bandit glass. This not only provides a considerable level of security but will offer significant noise reduction in the region of 48dB. And the inclusion of a low emissivity hard coat on the laminate glass reduces the U-value of the window combination to the range 1.8 to 1.95.