Description

TQ 2980 SE CITY OF WESTMINSTER ST. JAMES'S SQUARE,
82/22 SWl
5.2.70 No. 4
G.V. II*
Terraced town mansion. Rebuild or remodelling of a Barbon 1675-77 town
house in 1726-28 following fire damage, attributions to Giacomo Leoni but
also to Hawksmoor (ref. to 12 drawings for this house in his 'post mortem'
inventory), as well as to Edward Shepherd. Amber stock brick, slate roof.
Astylar Palladian facade with lofty piano nobile. 2 storeys and attic
storey, with basement. 5 windows wide. Entrance in 2nd bay from left with
stone Ionic columned porch, pilasters to wall flanking recessed 8-panel
door with rectangular fanlight. Recessed glazing bar sash windows with
stone architraves, those on ground floor eared with pulvinated friezes and
cornices identical in level and form to that of porch; those on 1st floor
(lowered) with pediments on consoles and the attic storey with the
architraves eared top and bottom. Plat band and sill bands underlining
ground and 1st floors. Moulded stone entablature over piano nobile and
secondary cornice and blocking course to attic. Low pitched hipped slate
roof virtually concealed. Early C.19 stone balcony to 1st floor with
simple cast iron railing. Late C.18/early C.19 cast iron spear head area
railings with urn finials. The rear garden front has a 4 window wide main
block with 4-window return, no dressings but with 1st floor plat band and
sill band and early C.19 balcony and crowning entablature with low parapet.
The east wing has a C.19 stock brick 4-window extension following the main
lines of the original. Fine interior, of unusual plan owing to northward
extension of the site; notable features include hall with Baroque
chimneypiece and arcade leading to inner hall and stair compartment (with
later column screen), a very fine Palladian design with early C.20
embellishments to the original plasterwork, 2 archivolt arched windows
flanking niche containing a plaster version of Rysbrack's Chiswick Inigo
Jones statue, appropriately Jones-Palladian pattern to original ceiling,
spacious stone stairs with fluted column balusters; 1st floor ballroom
behind the entire front with Palladian stuccowork to coved ceiling and mid
C.19 neo-Rococo gilded embellishments; rear drawing room, with original
cornice dado and shutters, redecorated in mid C.19 French Rococo taste;
this French Rococo decoration may well be designed by Earl de Grey whose
residence this was from 1834 to 1859 and who was his own architect and
interior designer at Wrest Park; redecoration on ground floor to rear
c.1920 by D.P. Milne and P. Phipps etc. For building across end of garden
see under Nos. 7 to 9 consec. Babmaes Street, SW1.
Survey of London; Vol. XXIX.

Listing NGR: TQ2954480445

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17549942

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)