Dean Street Area: Portland Estate, Dean Street

CHAPTER V

Dean Street Area: Portland Estate

The streets included in this chapter are Dean Street (part), Bourchier Street, St. Anne's Court (part), Carlisle Street, Diadem Court, Fareham Street and Great Chapel Street. They are shown on fig. 2 on page 28.

Dean Street

The northern and southern parts of Dean Street belonged from 1698 to the Portland estate. On both sides of the street, however, intermediate portions, comprising the sites of Nos. 36–41 (consec.) on the east, and Nos. 67–84 (consec.) on the west, were excepted out of the reversionary freehold grant made by the Crown to the Earl of Portland in that year (fig. 2 on page 28). They had been leased by the Crown in reversion in the previous year to Thomas Pitt, and are more particularly described in the chapter on the Pitt estate (see page 208).

Dean Street is first mentioned by name in the Act of Parliament of 1678 delimiting the site of St. Anne's Church, of which the street formed the eastern boundary. (fn. 5) The origin of the name is not known. (fn. 1) It was said in the nineteenth century (fn. 6) that the street first appears in the St. Martin's ratebooks in 1681. Among the ratebooks now surviving it does not appear by name in that year, but does in the next available book, for 1683. The development of the street had been slower than that of neighbouring streets, and only fifteen ratepayers are listed in that year. It is impossible to identify their houses, but it is probable that they were in the southern part of the street, below the present Nos. 41 and 67. In this area Richard Frith and his associates would probably have been able to begin building near their other early street-developments in the southern part of Soho Fields, before financial troubles caused a halt in the early 1680's. (fn. 7) The slow progress of the street as a whole, however, was caused by the fact that the central part of its intended line (approximately, from Bourchier Street to St. Anne's Court) ran through Cooke's Croft and Billson's Close. Here existing sub-leases, and the intervention of Nicholas Barbon, hindered Frith's plans (see page 30). In March 1682/3 part of Cooke's Croft and Billson's Close was leased by William Pym, who had acquired Frith's interest in this and other property, (fn. 8) to a George Bradbury as trustee for Barbon. (fn. 9) The area thus leased, consisting of a large plot on the west side of the street (Nos. 67–84 consec.) which comprised almost all the extent of Cooke's Croft and Billson's Close on that side, and a much smaller plot (Nos. 36–41 consec.) on the east, subsequently became the Pitt leasehold estate (see fig. 2 and Chapter IX). The lease from Pym in 1683 involved an undertaking to build on the property and in the years c. 1686–8 Barbon and Bradbury's assignee, Arnold Browne, were making agreements and leases for building here. (fn. 10) The sites on the western part of their property attracted a good class of tenant. (fn. 11)

Most of the area of Cooke's Croft and Billson's Close on the east side of the street was not included in this lease from Pym to Bradbury. Northward was a plot, probably including the western end of Bateman Street, which Pym retained himself. (fn. 12) Another part, probably further north, was leased by Pym in 1684 to Isaac Symball, the building speculator. (fn. 8)

Another plot on the east side of the street was leased back by Pym to Frith at an unknown date. It is uncertain whether this was part of Cooke's Croft and Billson's Close, or (more probably) ground to the south of that property and north of Old Compton Street which by 1682 Frith had sub-let to his brother Matthew, who like him was a bricklayer. (fn. 13)

Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1681–2 (Plate 2) shows the area of Cooke's Croft and Billson's Close still undeveloped. Their map seems to err, however, in showing the more northerly part of the street already built upon.

In the ratebook for 1691 upwards of forty houses appear in the street. The building-up since 1683 of the area acquired by Bradbury and Barbon is evident, and persons of title appear as ratepayers. North of this, both the eastern part of St. Anne's Court and all King's Square Court (now Carlisle Street westward of Dean Street) appear to be fully built. The former had been very recently built under leases granted by Edward Andrews, esquire, and Nicholas Burnell, haberdasher; here also the property seems at one time to have been Barbon's. (fn. 14) Northward of St. Anne's Court probably the whole of the west side of the street had been comprised in a lease made in 1685 by the assignees in bankruptcy of Benjamin Hinton to Job Bickerton and William Webb, carpenters, and Edward Roydon, turner. They, however, had themselves become heavily indebted to Philip Harman, the executor and son-in-law of the original lessee of the whole area, Joseph Girle. Harman had shrewdly continued Girle's role as supplier of building materials, and by 1687 held mortgages on this north-western part of Dean Street totalling upwards of £2,500. Some houses had then been finished (probably Carlisle House and the other houses in King's Square Court). But the builders' indebtedness evidently delayed the completion for habitation of most of the houses in this northward part of the street until the 1690's. (fn. 15) They had assigned part at least of the ground back to Harman by 1691, and Crown (now Diadem) Court was being built in the early 1690's by lessees direct from Harman. (fn. 16) It existed by name in 1693. (fn. 17) The ratebooks indicate that by 1697 the west side of the street was more or less built up and tenanted. On the east side, however, this more northerly part, consisting of the backs of sites in Soho Square, remained only partially developed, as the rear premises of the houses there, for another century.

Despite the protracted history of the building of the street, its alignment seems to have been unaffected. It was said in 1678 that Barbon's intervention in Cooke's Croft and Billson's Close had caused changes in Frith's pursuit of his scheme (see page 30), but the line of the street shows no evident sign of alteration.

Few of the names of the tradesmen directly concerned in the first erection of houses in the street are known. In March 1682 a carpenter, John Costin, possessed a house at the north-east corner with Old Compton Street. In that month an unfinished house adjacent northward was leased by Frith and his associates to Frith's brother Matthew, a bricklayer of St. Martin in the Fields, who covenanted to finish the house. By 1688 it was said that he had 'absconded himself and is since gone … to Jamaica' (fn. 7) leaving the house unfinished. In the later 1680's the Soho carpenter, Richard Campion, and the bricklayer, Alexander Williams, of St. Giles in the Fields, who were in some way associated in the building of St. Anne's Church (see page 259), were also associated in the building of houses on the east side of Dean Street: Williams, like Matthew Frith, was said to have failed to finish his houses. (fn. 18) Campion's estate at his death in 1691 included five houses in the street, valued together at about £1,300. (fn. 19) On the west side of the street, in the neighbourhood of Meard Street and Bourchier Street, two carpenters, Thomas Farley of St. Sepulchre's, and John Goodman of London, and (at another site) a joiner, Thomas Wildman of London, were working on houses, c. 1686–8, for William Maddox of St. Anne's, locksmith or blacksmith, a lessee under Barbon and Browne. Both undertakings resulted in accusations of bad workmanship or delay in finishing the work. Another carpenter, Boniface, had a site in this part of the street in c. 1686. (fn. 20)

Like the other streets of Soho, Dean Street received from the beginning its complement of French immigrants. The highest incidence of French-seeming names among the householders paying rates was not, however, reached until about 1714, when they constituted perhaps a quarter of the whole. By the 1790's almost all the ratepayers' names look British.

Its first developers gave the street a more generous width than the others in Soho. In 1720 Strype described it as 'a spacious Street … It is graced with good Buildings, especially the middle Part, but that towards the Road [i.e., Oxford Street] is but ordinary'. (fn. 21) Some fourteen years later, with the expiry of the Earl of St. Albans's leasehold interest in Soho Fields and of the other interests dependent upon it, an extensive rebuilding of the street took place. On the Pitt leasehold estate in the centre of the street the redevelopment c. 1734 amounted to an almost complete rebuilding: it included some handsome houses for wealthy occupants (see Chapter IX). On the Portland estate the redevelopment was less comprehensive, but was a nearly complete rebuilding at the north-west end of the street. Here one new, short street was made where Titchfield (now Fareham) Street joined Dean Street to Great Chapel Street.

When this phase of rebuilding was completed the total rateable value of the houses in the street (as shown in the 1740 poor-ratebook) was about £2,290, with an average assessment of about £37 10s. Fifty-two years later, in 1792, the total was about £3,030, and the average about £39. Another fifty-two years on, in 1844, the total was about £4,880 and the average had risen to about £51, and in 1896 the total was about £9,700 and the average about £114. Little amalgamation of sites had taken place.

With the possible exceptions of No. 29 and (more doubtfully) Nos. 48 and 62, none of the first houses built in Dean Street survives.

The records of the licensing of victuallers show that, apart from the Rose and Crown at No. 85 (see p. 137), four public houses in Dean Street have probably existed on their present sites (although not in their present buildings) since the first half of the eighteenth century. Three then bore their present names. (fn. 22) At Nos. 31–32 the Crown and Two Chairmen existed in 1737 and, as the Crown, in 1724. (fn. 23) At No. 51 the Golden Lion existed in 1728. At No. 89 the Highlander existed in 1748. On the site of the Bath House, at No. 96, a public house called the Green Man and (French) Horn existed in 1748 and, probably, in 1738. (fn. 24)

By the mid nineteenth century the residents in the street, as listed in the Post Office directory for 1850, were noticeably diversified in their occupations. Private residents, professional men, doctors, bakers, shoemakers, schools, a theatre, craftsmen, small manufacturers, artisans, piano-makers, graphic artists, leatherworkers, private teachers, wholesale importers, a chiropodist and seven tailors were among those listed, with no clear preponderance of one or two types. By 1900 the same source shows more manufacturers and workshops, more eating-houses or restaurants, fewer doctors and professional men, and seemingly fewer small craftsmen.

Residents or lodgers in houses in Dean Street which are not described elsewhere have included: Lady Eleanor Cotwell, c. 1691; Henry HamiltonMoore, third Earl of Drogheda, c. 1691; Lord Poscott, probably Folliott Wingfield, first Viscount Powerscourt, c. 1691; Lady Bagnall, c. 1691–2; Lady Venables, c. 1691–7; Lady Colvin, 1692; Lady Williams, 1692–c. 1697; Countess of Montgomery, 1693; Lady St. Leger, (fn. 17) 1693; Sir J. Morgan, 1693; (fn. 17) Peter Vanderbank, engraver, 1693–4 (fn. 17) (see p. 515n); Lord Jarman, probably Thomas Jermyn, second Baron Jermyn, 1693–c. 1697; Lady Mountague, 1693–c. 1697; Doctor Thomas Smith, nonjuring divine and scholar, 1694–1710; Lady Robinson, c. 1695–7; Colonel Ward, c. 1696–7; Sir John Thompson, first Baron Haversham, Lord of the Admiralty, c. 1697; Colonel De Bruce, c. 1697– 1732; Lady Holdcroft, c. 1703; Sir David Mitchell, Vice-Admiral, c. 1703; Sir Sewster Payton, second baronet, c. 1703; Lady Hart, c. 1703–11; Lady Earnley, c. 1703–18; Lady Manering, c. 1706; Lady Temple, c. 1706–08; Mr. Paisible, perhaps James Paisible, flautist and composer, c. 1706–10; Colonel Dissadere, 1708–16; Lady Blackett, 1709–11; Lady Trant, 1710–25; Lieutenant-General Hatton Compton, 1713–28; Lady Stuart, 1714; Brigadier-General Patrick Meade, 1714–15; Colonel Mannew, 1716–21; Major Cambray or Camboran, 1722–31; Lady Mathews, 1725–6; Colonel Carpenter, 1737–45; General or Governor Thomas, 1751–3; Hester Lynch Salusbury (later Mrs. Thrale, subsequently Mrs. Piozzi), (fn. 25) c. 1762–3; Francis Hayman, painter, 1765–76; John Taylor, painter, c. 1772– 8; Hester Chapone, essayist, c. 1783; (fn. 26) William Seward, man of letters, in 1799; (fn. 27) Michael (Angelo) Rooker, engraver and painter in 1801; (fn. 28) T. P. Chipp, perhaps the musician, c. 1825. (fn. 29)

Some artists whose addresses are given as being in Dean Street in exhibition catalogues, but whose names do not appear in the ratebooks, are listed below, with the years in which they exhibited:

John Smart, miniature painter, 1764; Agostino Carlini, sculptor and painter, 1765–8; Elias Martin, painter, 1771–3; John Frederick Martin, engraver, 1771–3; John Francis Rigaud, painter, 1774–7; William Pether, engraver and miniature painter, 1775; Thomas Hardwick, architect, 1783; (Sir) William Beechey, painter, 1791; John Mulholland, architect, 1793; George Francis Joseph, painter, 1794; James Baynes, painter, 1796; L. Gahagan, sculptor, 1798.

No. 6 DEAN STREET

The architect and exact date of erection of this building are not known. It has aways been held in connexion with Nos. 4–6 Soho Square, and was no doubt built in the early nineteenth century for John Trotter (fn. 30) (see page 58). (fn. c1)

The wide three-storeyed front is a good example of early nineteenth-century warehouse design, carried out in yellow stock bricks sparingly dressed with stone (Plate 135b). The ground storey is arcaded, with three segmental arches of gauged bricks resting on plain imposts above brick piers, those flanking the middle bay also having stone bases and plain stone bands halfway up the shafts. The northern arch contains a window set in a plain walling, the middle arch opens to a wide passageway with doorways on either side, and the southern arch now contains a doorway with side-lights below a large fanlight of radial pattern, modern work in excellent taste. The upper face of the front, underlined by a plain stone bandcourse, contains two storeys with three evenly spaced windows, centred over the groundstorey arches. These windows are wide and divided by plain mullions into three lights, wide between narrow, all originally furnished with double-hung sashes. The openings are quite plain, with segmental arches of finely gauged brickwork, worked from a smaller radius than that of the arch segment. The front is carried up to form a parapet, finished with a narrow stone coping.

No. 7 Dean Street

This is the back of No. 3 Soho Square. The red brick and stone elevation has an Art Nouveau character, but is free from the overdone modelling and fussy ornamentation of the building's main front (see page 57). There are three storeys, the ground and first floor lofty and the second floor low, each containing a large wide window of several lights (Plate 135b).

No. 8 Dean Street

This was built in 1878 as a residence for Dr. David Jones (the lowest tender being at £2,475), to the design of Eales and Sons, architects. (fn. 31) (fn. c2)

It has an interesting front in the Victorian Italian Gothic style, solidly built in plain, moulded and cut brickwork (Plate 135b). The ground storey, unfortunately altered, was originally consistent with the two upper storeys, each containing three windows deeply recessed in roundheaded openings having brick arches and slightly pointed hood mouldings. Moulded strings divide the storeys and the front is finished with a pseudomachicolated parapet.

No. 10 Dean Street

This house was built in 1878. (fn. 30) The architect is not known. The site had previously been occupied by the Royal Dispensary for Diseases of the Ear (see Nos. 42–43).

No. 21 Dean Street: the West End Great Synagogue

This occupies part of the site of the former back premises of No. 31 Soho Square. On Dean Street those premises had a frontage of some 137 feet, including that of Nos. 22–23, and of the former No. 20, which extended about twentythree feet north of No. 21. The back premises also included Dean's Yard (now Chapone Place).

Until at least 1769 some part of the Dean Street frontage of the Soho Square property was probably not built upon, although Rocque's map of 1746 indicates a 'Venetian' chapel fronting on to this part of Dean Street (Plate 4). It was presumably the chapel of the Venetian ambassador, who in c. 1744–7 lived in the Soho Square house (see page 11 7).

By March 1749/50 a public concert-room was in use somewhere within the site. It was described as being 'at the Great House in Thriftstreet, Soho, (late the Venetian Ambassador's)' (fn. 32) but was perhaps in the building previously utilized as a chapel. It became a well-known place of resort under the name of the Great Room, with entrances both from Frith Street and from Dean Street, its address being usually given in the latter street.

The opening announcement of a series of subscription concerts in December 1751 assured the public that 'the Room will be disposed in the most convenient and elegant Manner for the Reception of the Company, and kept in proper Warmth by the Help of a German Stove, to prevent them from catching Cold'. A single ticket for twenty weekly concerts cost three guineas. The appearance of the Great Room does not seem to have been recorded: in c. 1760 it possessed a 'pit' and 'gallery'. (fn. 33) Much of Handel's music was performed here. (fn. 34) At some time before 1761 the tenant of the room was Joseph Passarini and his wife Sophia, (fn. 35) who sang at some of the concerts. The last performance of which a record has been noted was announced for 4 February 1763. (fn. 33)

The 'Great Concert Room' was let by the occupant of No. 31 Soho Square for four years from Michaelmas 1761 to Peter De Rumilly, dancing-master. (fn. 35)

It was in 1769 that a building was first assessed in this part of the Dean Street section of the ratebooks. It was probably newly built by John Machin, a timber merchant who had a long lease of the whole Soho Square property from the Duke of Portland which commenced in that year. (fn. 36) The occupant, until about 1789, was James Blyth, an auctioneer, (fn. 37) who was succeeded by other auctioneers, Charles Christie and E. M. or F. Walker, c. 1790–1807. (fn. 35) The auctionroom was probably the former concert-room. (fn. 38)

From 1812 to 1832 St. Patrick's Charity School was located somewhere on the site, after its removal from Denmark Street. (fn. 39) In 1817 instruction was being given to 600 children and by 1822 the school was educating 'the whole of the Irish children west of a line running north and south through Fleet Market [Farringdon Street]'. (fn. 40) Mass was sometimes celebrated here when St. Patrick's Church was closed. (fn. 41)

From 1833 to 1845 rates were paid on the premises as a warehouse, but other occupants appear in directories—Mrs. Sarah Roy's ladies' school in 1838–40, and Bernasconi and Riddell, architectural modellers, in 1842–3.

In 1846 a dancing academy was established here by James Home, a wine merchant, and seems to have been taken over in 1848 by John Caldwell, whose Assembly Rooms were here on the street frontage until 1871. (fn. 42) In 1851 he enlarged the premises by having a ballroom built on the upper floor by the architect, G. B. Marshall. (fn. 43) A schoolroom was on the ground floor, (fn. 44) and the Western Jewish Girls' Free School was accommodated here c. 1850–3 before removing to No. 60 Greek Street. (fn. 42) A considerable increase in rating suggests another enlargement of the building in 1856.

In February 1872 the building was bought for £5,900 by the trustees of St. Anne's National Schools, previously in Rose (now Manette) Street. (fn. 45)

The school had been founded by a body of subscribers at the end of 1699, as an Anglican charity school for forty boys. Two rooms were hired in Frith Street, and the number of boys was almost immediately increased to fifty. The boys were provided with clothes but not boarded. (fn. 46) In 1703 the school moved to premises, bought on 10 November, at the corner of Frith and Church Streets (fn. 47) (probably the south-west corner). (fn. 30) In the following year a school for thirty girls was founded. (fn. 47) It was accommodated in the parish poorhouse off Wardour Street (see page 190) c. 1708–11, (fn. 48) but thereafter perhaps shared the same premises as the boys. (fn. 47) The schools remained there until the 1730's, when they removed to a larger site south of Rose Street (fn. 49) (see page 191). In 1802 the number of boys was limited to 120 but by 1858 the schools were attended by 134 boys, 70 girls and 172 infants. (fn. 50) They were by then National Schools. (fn. 51) From 1864 the provision of new premises was under consideration and in October 1872 the schools moved to Dean Street. (fn. 50)

The building was adapted for its new use at a cost of some £2,500. In 1877 the number of pupils was 1,005 but with the decrease in the population of the parish following the Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road improvements the number fell, and in 1898–9 the average attendance was 180 boys, 180 girls and 183 infants. (fn. 52) Fees ranged from 1d. to 3d. a week, and income and expenditure balanced at about £1,500 per annum. (fn. 53) In 1907 improvements required by the Education Department and the London County Council were carried out at a cost of some £2,300. (fn. 54)

St. Anne's National Schools were closed in 1939, when they were attended by 82 children. (fn. 55) By 1944 the premises had been taken by the West End Talmud Torah and Bikkur Holim Synagogue and by 1947 were occupied by the West End Great Synagogue. (fn. 56) In 1961 the old building was demolished and replaced by one designed for that synagogue by Joseph Fiszpan, which contains also a youth club and the gallery of the Ben Uri Art Society. (fn. 57)

Architectural Description

The former building on this site contained basement vaults and three lofty storeys, the synagogue being on the ground floor, with offices and a large top-lit hall above. The wide front, which had been considerably altered, is best shown in a photograph taken about 1898 when the building was occupied by St. Anne's National Schools, reproduced in Two Centuries of Soho. (fn. 58) Stuccofaced and Italianate in style, it was a composition of two storeys, the lower with three widely spaced windows between two doorways, the windows being straight-headed and the doorways elliptically-arched, but all dressed alike with vermiculated rustics. The moulded stringcourse at first-floor level was broken to frame a long tablet lettered ST. ANNE'S NATIONAL SCHOOLS. In the lofty upper storey were five large windows, each dressed with a moulded sill resting on consoles flanking a panelled apron, and a wide moulded architrave surmounted by a narrow frieze and cornice. At each end of the front was a wide pier of vermiculated rustic courses, below a panelled pilaster set against plain rustics. A bold cornice and a high plain parapet finished the front.

The present building, completed in 1963, was skilfully planned to contain a youth-club hall in the basement, a synagogue accommodating 306 worshippers on the ground floor and 196 in the three-sided gallery on the first floor, a large hall with a stage and kitchen on the second floor, the Ben Uri Art Gallery on the third floor, and residential quarters at the top. The Dean Street front has a recessed vertical feature at the north end, with windows extending between aprons of grey-green composition and the entrance recessed below a segmental canopy. The rest of the front is of red brick above a black granite plinth, containing the basement windows. The two tiers of six windows lighting the synagogue are enclosed by a framing of artificial stone, the narrow piers between the windows being faced with black and gold mosaic and the first-floor aprons being of blue opaque glass. The upper-storey windows, six to each floor, are separately set in narrow frames of artificial stone, and the top storey is recessed behind a stone pergola.

No. 22–23 Dean Street

Demolished

This house, demolished in 1965, was originally two houses, built in 1775 under a lease granted by the Portland family to John Machin, timber merchant. (fn. 59) The first occupant of No. 23 was Henry Lester, esquire, while Machin perhaps occupied the other. (fn. 30) In c. 1832–3 Thomas Sharp, the sculptor, occupied No. 22.

In 1798 No. 23 was taken by Henry Morland, brother of the painter, George Morland. (fn. 30) In or shortly before 1804 Henry converted it into a hotel and tavern, which became well known as Morland's Hotel. (fn. 60) Henry is described as 'a dealer in everything, a business for which his mind was exactly fitted, being an eccentric, money-making character'. (fn. 61) His brother George stayed at No. 23 intermittently during the last, drunken, creditor-harassed years before his death in October 1804. In July of that year his biographer, Collins, found him here, 'upstairs, in the back drawing-room, at work, or rather drinking and talking over his old disasters' (fn. 60) but among the many paintings which he executed here for Henry in the latter's capacity as picture-dealer were some of his better works. (fn. 62) Some engravings were published by Henry from this address. (fn. 63) Henry's occupation of No. 23 lasted until 1835. (fn. 30)

The two houses were united in 1868–9. (fn. 30) They had a wide frontage extending over the entrance to a large yard, to the left, or north of the house doorway. The united front was four storeys high, with four widely spaced windows in each upper storey. Before demolition, the painted stucco face appeared to date from the mid nineteenth century. There were architraves to the windows, those of the first floor having cornices, and over each end window a triangular pediment. A dentilled cornice of rather flat profile, between bracket-stops, extended above each end window of the second floor. All the windows were straight-headed except for those in the attic storey, which had segmental arches.

The much altered interior contained a wide entrance passage leading through an arch to the bow-ended staircase, which was of wood and rose round an open well with an unbroken flight between each storey, having winders linking the two parallel series of steps. The balustrade was plain, and there was a sparing use of cast plaster decoration.

No. 24–25 Dean Street

Demolished

This house, demolished in 1965, was erected c. 1734 under a sixty-five-year building lease granted by the Portland family to Thomas Gingell of St. George's, Hanover Square, carpenter. (fn. 64) At the time of demolition it had been partly rebuilt but in excellent taste (Plate 112d). The front was four storeys high and four windows wide, the yellow stock-brick face being dressed with red rubbers, used for the jambs and gauged flat arches of the window-openings. Good modern replacements of the original barred sashes were hung in the partly exposed frames, recessed some three inches from the front face. All the windows had stone sills, including the two wide three-light openings in the rebuilt top storey. There was a yard entrance on the right, or south side of the house doorway, and a modern shop front of simple but appropriate design on the left. The entrance passage was lined with plain deal panelling in ovolo-moulded framing, finished with a box-cornice, and Doric plain-shafted pilasters dressed the opening to the stair compartment. The dog-legged stair retained only a few of the original simply turned balusters.

Nos. 26–28 (consec.) Dean Street

These three houses, now part of Leoni's Quo Vadis restaurant, were all erected c. 1734 under sixty-five-year building leases granted by the Portland family to John Nolloth of St. James's, carpenter (fn. 65) (Plate 112d).

It was in two small rooms in No. 28, probably on the top floor (or second floor), that Karl Marx lodged with his family for five and three quarter years in 1851– 6. He had arrived in England in August 1849 after the collapse of the revolutionary movement of 1848 in the Rhineland. His most recent lodgings before moving to No. 28 Dean Street had been (briefly) in the German Hotel in Leicester Street (fn. 66) and then, from May or June to December 1850, at No. 64 Dean Street (now demolished). (fn. 67) It was during his stay at the latter address that Marx had produced with Engels the last disputatious numbers of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, and fought the internecine battles of the Communist League. (fn. 2)

The Marx family was at No. 28 by January or February 1851. (fn. 68) The main occupant of the house (and the ratepayer) at that time, was an Italian-born cook, John Marengo: other occupants were an Italian confectioner, and a 'teacher of languages', Morgan Kavanagh, from whom Marx evidently hired his own two rooms. (fn. 69) (fn. 3) In the census returns for 1851 Marx appears as Charles Mark, 'Doctor (Philosophical Author)'; his family included their German servant or companion and an English nurse. (fn. 70)

The period of their stay here was nevertheless one of poverty and sickness and saw the death of three of the young children. Marx's publications were mainly limited to polemical articles, including those collected as The Eighteenth Brumaire and his contributions to the People's Paper and the New York Tribune: much of his time was given to the intrigues of revolutionary politics, and to his studies in the British Museum for the major works of the following period, Zur Kritik der Politischen Oekonomie (1859) and Das Kapital (1867). (fn. 71)

The report of a Prussian agent gives one view of the crowded disorder in which Marx's family lived at No. 28, 'in one of the worst, therefore also the cheapest, quarters of London. He occupies two rooms; … in the whole apartment there is not one clean and good piece of furniture to be found; all is broken, tattered and torn, everywhere clings thick dust, everywhere is the greatest disorder; … his manuscripts, books and newspapers lie beside the children's toys, bits and pieces from his wife's work-basket, tea-cups with broken rims, dirty spoons, knives, forks, lamps, an inkwell, tumblers, Dutch clay-pipes, tobacco ash … all this on the same table …, sitting down is a really hazardous business…. But all this gives Marx and his wife not the slightest embarrassment; one is received in the friendliest way.' (fn. 72)

As soon as the Marx family could afford to move from this 'old hovel' (alte Loch) they did so. In late September 1856 Marx wrote to Engels that they were 'in einem wahren hurly-burly' with the removal, and by October they were at No. 9 (later No. 46) Grafton Terrace, St. Pancras. (fn. 73)

Architectural Description

The three houses, Nos. 26–28 Dean Street, all four storeys high and three windows wide, make a uniform group (Plate 112d). The early eighteenth-century fronts are of stock brick with red dressings, but the ground storey throughout has been altered by the insertion of the large windows lighting the restaurant, the first-floor face has been covered with panel-moulded boarding, and the brickwork of the upper storeys has been uniformly painted a deep yellow-cream colour. The windows, some sashes and some casements, are set in partly exposed frames recessed about three inches from the brick face, in openings having stone sills and flat arches of gauged brickwork. The second-floor windows of Nos. 26 and 28 are distinguished by their brick aprons, having lugs ornamented with guttae, and below the attic storey is a cornice, extending across the three fronts and returned at each end. The cornice now appears to be faced with painted stucco, probably concealing original red brick.

The interiors have been greatly altered, but much of the original panelling remains, some of it repositioned to accord with the structural changes made for the restaurant.

No. 29 Dean Street

This house, now part of Leoni's Quo Vadis restaurant, appears to be substantially that built in c. 1692. It was first occupied by a Mr. Noel from 1693 to 1696. (fn. 30) In January 1739/40 a half-interest in a leasehold title to the site, held of the Duke of Portland, was assigned to Sir John Vanbrugh's sister, Robina Vanbrugh, who appears as the ratepayer for the years 1739–41. It is doubtful, however, whether she occupied any part of the house as she is described as of St. Martin's in the Fields in the deed of 1740. (fn. 74) Some or all of the house was occupied in 1737 or earlier by the painter, Joseph Francis Nollekens; his son Joseph, the sculptor, was born here in August of that year. (fn. 75) Nollekens's name appears here in the margin of a ratebook for 1738, and from 1742 he was entered as ratepayer until his death here in January 1747/8. (fn. 76) His widow continued as ratepayer until 1752.

From 1770 to 1773 the house was occupied by François Hippolite Barthélémon, the composer and leading violinist at Vauxhall Gardens. (fn. 30)

It was probably here that Robert Cruikshank, the caricaturist, and brother of George, was living in 1811. (fn. 77)

Despite its earlier date No. 29 is in many ways similar to Nos. 26, 27 and 28, although slightly smaller in scale. The front is of pink stock bricks with red rubbers used for the flat arches of the windows and for the cornice below the attic storey, which was perhaps added in c. 1770. (fn. 30) Victorian single-pane sashes fill the flush frames of the windows.

Nos. 33 and 33a Dean Street

These houses were built c. 1734 under a sixtyfive-year building lease granted by the Portland family to William Bignell of St. Anne's, glazier. (fn. 78)

From 1748 to 1775 the rates of No. 33 were paid by Ellis Roberts. At this period the house was well known as Jack's Coffee House, and is said to have been so named after John Roberts, a singer at Drury Lane and perhaps the licensee. (fn. 79) In 1760–2 No. 33A was occupied by Jacob Leroux, (fn. 30) a surveyor, and perhaps the designer of Mrs. Cornelys's rooms in Soho Square (see page 75). From 1783 the two houses were occupied together, and under the ownership of William Walker from 1813 to 1849 were known as Walker's Hotel.

In 1851 the two houses were divided again (fn. 30) after alterations at this time by the architect C. Lockyer (fn. 80) which probably included the insertion of the present shop fronts.

From 1851 to 1883 the ratepayer for No. 33 was Joseph Rogers, sometime medical officer of St. Anne's and founder of the Poor Law Medical Officers' Association. (fn. 81)

These houses have four-storeyed fronts, each three windows wide. No. 33A is the less changed, with barred sashes in partly exposed frames, recessed some three inches within segmentalarched openings having stone sills and dressings of red brick, the general facing being of pink stocks. Both houses have shops in the ground storey with uniform shop fronts, the windows and doorways being framed by Doric pilasters supporting an entablature having a modillioned cornice.

Nos. 36–41 (consec.) Dean Street

See Chapter IX, pages 210, 248–9.

No. 42–43 Dean Street

This building was erected in 1903–4 as the Royal Ear Hospital, to designs of Rogers Field and A. D. Collard, and was opened on 12 December 1904. (fn. 82) The institution had been founded as a dispensary for diseases of the ear in 1816 and was located in this street (from at least 1831 at the former No. 10) until it removed to the former No. 66 Frith Street in 1876. (fn. 83) In 1920 the hospital became the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of University College Hospital, until its removal to Huntley Street, St. Pancras, in 1927. (fn. 84)

The front is of pink brick dressed with stone, a design of mildly Art Nouveau character. It is a composition of three wide bays, the middle one a projecting segmental bow of three-light windows, and each side bay a flat face with two-light windows. The third storey is finished with a parapet of brick, its stone coping broken by inverted semi-circular curves in front of the three dormer windows in the roof.

No. 48 Dean Street

It is uncertain whether this is in part a survival from the first laying out of Dean Street or a building of c. 1734. A house existed on this site by 1691. (fn. 30) In 1730 the assignment of a Portland lease expiring in 1769 was acquired by Charles Pollingtine or Paulentine of St. Anne's, a joiner, who from 1734 himself occupied the site until 1746. (fn. 30) The lease was evidently not a building lease (fn. 85) and there is no positive indication of complete rebuilding in the ratebooks. The rate assessment was, however, substantially increased in 1734, and when the site was mortgaged in that year the house on it was described as a 'New Brick Messuage … Built or now Erecting and Building'. The house looks older than 1734 but this may be because, being held for a comparatively short term and without the control of a Portland building lease, it was cheaply constructed, by an unsophisticated builder: Pollingtine signed the mortgage with his mark only. (fn. 86)

Whatever its date, this narrow-fronted house has been greatly altered. A modern shop front fills the ground storey and the brickwork of the two-storeyed upper face has been covered with cement. There are plain bandcourses at the firstfloor sill level and at second-floor level. The straight-headed windows, two in each storey, have flush frames containing modern casements, and there is a dormer light in the tiled mansard roof.

No. 57 Dean Street

See St. Anne's House, page 276.

No. 61 Dean Street and No. 50 Old Compton Street

This corner building was erected in 1862, with its entrance in Old Compton Street, (fn. 42) to the design of the architect, A. H. Morant, who died in the following year, aged thirty-one. (fn. 87) It was occupied throughout the nineteenth century by firms of grocers. (fn. 56)

The exterior of this four-storeyed building is in the Italianate style of the mid nineteenth century (Plate 113c). The ground storey now contains modern shop windows set in a wide and plain surround of figured white marble. The upper part of the building is faced with painted stucco and features a giant order of Corinthian plainshafted pilasters rising through two storeys, flanking the two-windows-wide front to Old Compton Street, and dividing the Dean Street front into three bays, each one window wide, the windows in the southern and middle bays being blind. Each first-floor window is dressed with pilaster-strips surmounted by scrolled consoles, flanking a panelled frieze and supporting a triangular pediment. The second-floor windows have stepped architraves only. The giant Corinthian order carries an entablature having a plain frieze, but the attic storey, which is divided into bays by panelled pilasters, has an elaborate bracketed entablature of the kind favoured by Vignola.

No. 62 Dean Street

As at No. 48 Dean Street it is uncertain whether this is partly a survival from the first laying out of the street or a building of c. 1734 (Plate 113c). There was a house here by 1691 (fn. 30) although it occupied only the front nineteen feet of depth of the present site. (fn. 88) In February 1733/4 the assignment of a Portland lease (not a building lease) of this lesser area, with the house on it, expiring in 1769, was obtained by a carpenter, named Charles Carpenter, of St. Margaret's, Westminster. (fn. 89) In March 1734/5 he obtained a sub-lease, retrospective from Lady Day 1734, of an additional piece of ground to the rear; at that time No. 62 was described as 'new built' (fn. 90) or 'lately built' (fn. 91) by Carpenter, and the 'new built Messuage' as standing on part of the recently acquired addition to the site. (fn. 92) The ratebooks do not indicate whether the rebuilding was complete, as these descriptions suggest, or only partial, as is suggested by the greater apparent age of the house, in style and structure, compared with others of c. 1734. This may, however, be due, as at No. 48, to the comparatively cheap unmodish work of a builder working without the control of Portland building specifications or the incentive of a long lease.

The newly built or enlarged and renovated house was first occupied in 1735 by Richard Griffith, apothecary (who removed from the adjacent No. 63). (fn. 92) The name continues until 1762, he (or possibly his son) being described in 1759 as a surgeon. (fn. 93)

Rises in the rating of the house in 1765 and 1770 suggest alterations or enlargement. In the latter year the house was taken by the painter and engraver, David Martin, until 1790. (fn. 94) Two other artists who were not ratepayers but exhibited pictures from this address were John Rathbone (1798) and William P. Sherlock (1801–3, 1805). (fn. 95)

In 1910 the house was taken by the present occupants, Francis Downman, wine merchants, (fn. 56) and the shop front, designed by Victor Jackson, was inserted in 1911. (fn. 96)

The building presents a wide frontage to the street but its width at the back is decreased by the presence of an area shared with No. 61. As is evident from the number of tie rods visible in front, the carcase is old, but nothing of antiquarian interest survives inside the building. The wellexecuted shop front in oak has two small-paned bow windows flanking the shop doorway. The upper part of the front is of stock bricks, now blackened, with stucco-faced bandcourses between the three storeys and a plain stone-coped parapet. There are four windows in each storey, the openings having stone sills, thinly plastered reveals, and flat gauged brick arches. The sashes in the two upper storeys retain glazing-bars of the original heavy section.

Nos. 67–84 (consec.) Dean Street

See Chapter IX, pages 210–38, 248–53.

No. 85 Dean Street: the Rose and Crown Public House

A public house called the Rose and Crown was established on this site in 1735, (fn. 97) when a new house was erected, together with Nos. 1–8 (consec.) St. Anne's Court (see page 142), under a Portland building lease made to Thomas Richmond, carpenter. (fn. 98) A house previously on the site was occupied in 1717 by a distiller. (fn. 99) The present house (Plate 113d) is a rebuilding, probably complete, of 1799–1800, when on the expiry of Richmond's lease the Portland family sold the freehold to Robert Attrill, victualler (formerly of St. Marylebone). Attrill's trustee in the conveyance was David Todd, a bricklayer of David Street, York Place, St. Marylebone. (fn. 100) In c. 1804 the house was called The Grapes. (fn. 101)

Above the ground storey, which has an opulent Victorian dress of polished granite and buff terra-cotta, this building preserves its original character, the plain but bold rounded corner being typical of its date. The stock brickwork is relieved with painted stucco. This is used for the architraves of the three first-floor windows to Dean Street, the middle one accented with a pediment, for the plain second-floor bandcourse, and for the deep entablature crowning the front.

Nos. 86–87 Dean Street

See St. Anne's Court, eastern range (page 142).

No. 88 Dean Street

This house with its attractive shop front dates from 1791. The first occupant was a Thomas Norman whose trade is not known: he was succeeded by 'Widow Norman' in 1792, until 1794. (fn. 4) The next occupant did not pay his rates and soon went; the rate-collector noted: 'goods sold'. (fn. 30) The first occupant of the premises whose calling is known is William Hawkins, broker, in 1801. (fn. 102)

This is a wide single-fronted house containing a cellar-basement, three storeys, and a mansard garret. A shop occupies most of the ground floor, with the house entrance-passage on its south side. The upper floors are arranged with two front rooms, the south with two windows and the north with one, and two small back rooms to the north of the dog-legged staircase.

The one noteworthy feature of the building is the shop front, a design of great charm and interest, constructed in wood with compo ornamentation (Plate 132a, 132b, fig. 32). It is divided by slender pilaster-strips into four bays, the first and third, which are narrow, containing respectively the door to the house and the shop. The second and third bays are wide, and each contains a display window which projects above the stallboard and has canted ends. The entablature-like fascia breaks forward, with a segmental curve at either end, above the display windows and shop doorway. Much of the decorative detail is in the pretty 'Classical' mode of the late eighteenth century, but Rococo panel-frames are used with happy effect on the fascia. Each pilaster-strip has a plain base; a shaft modelled with vertical mouldings, comprising a rope-like bead centred between paired plain beads of triangular section, with plain fillets on the outside; and a capping block decorated with a compo ornament combining crossed trumpets and a lyre. Both display windows are divided by moulded glazing-bars into two series of five large panes, each a tall oblong, the end panes being canted on plan. The two-leaved glazed door to the shop appears to be late Victorian, but the house door is original, with five flush panels— two small horizontal oblongs at the top, a large square in the middle, and two small vertical oblongs below—all being decorated with a border of cross-banded fluting. Above the door is a fanlight with glazing set in a metal frame formed of a large oval intersected by diagonal bars converging on a small central oval. The entablature, or fascia, has an architrave composed of a narrow band of fluting below a guilloche band. On the wide frieze are panels enclosed by Rococo frames. That over the shop door is an open oval formed by C-scrolls flanked by palm branches; over each display window is a long panel enclosed by elongated C-scrolls and rocaille ornaments; and above the house door more C-scrolls form a panel shaped roughly like a knuckle-bone. The cornice is of unorthodox profile, consisting of a ropeornamented ovolo beneath a corona that has a reeded soffit and a plain ovolo profile.

The upper part of the front is very simple, a stock brick face containing two storeys of three windows, widely and evenly spaced. The firstfloor windows are slightly wider than those of the second floor, but all have Victorian sashes recessed in plain openings, with thin stone sills, plastered reveals, and flat gauged brick arches. In the mansard roof are two dormers.

No. 90 Dean Street

This house was built between 1756 and 1767 (Plate 113a). In the latter year it was assessed for rates to James Young, esquire, who remained here until 1781. (fn. 30) The site was part of a larger piece of property, including the sites of Nos. 91 and 92 Dean Street and No. 17 Carlisle Street, of which a leasehold interest had been acquired in 1756 by George Smith Bradshaw, the prominent upholsterer and tapestry-maker. (fn. 103) In that year Bradshaw had pulled down two smaller houses on the site, fronting south to King's Square Court (now Carlisle Street). (fn. 30) It is not clear from the ratebooks whether No. 90 was then built, at the same time as the former No. 91 Dean Street, and occupied by Bradshaw, together with that house, until 1767, or was not built until about the latter year, at approximately the same time as the adjacent No. 17 Carlisle Street.

In 1788 the house was taken by the composer, Domenico Corri, on his removal from Edinburgh. In the 1790's he and his son-in-law, the Czech pianist and composer, J. L. Dussek, had a music publisher's business and musical-instrument shop here, and in the years 1795–7 occupied the former No. 91 also. On the failure of the business Corri removed to the Haymarket in 1800. (fn. 104)

He was succeeded in occupation of the house by the oboist, John Parke, until his death in 1829. Parke's son Henry, the artist and architect, (fn. 105) was living here c. 1815–33, and it was also the address of the architect, Philip Flood Page, in 1816. (fn. 106) In 1854–5 the house was occupied by Queen Adelaide's Lying-in Hospital. (fn. 42)

No. 90 is a lofty house containing a basement and four storeys, the ground floor being raised some three feet above the pavement level. The entrance front in Dean Street is three windows wide and the return front to Carlisle Street is four windows wide. A stucco facing has been added to the ground storey, extending to the continued sill-band of the first-floor windows. This stucco face is divided into courses by V-joints, and the angle of the two fronts is emphasized by vermiculated long-and-short quoins. The doorway, to the north of the two ground-floor windows, has a wooden doorcase in a style suggestive of a period c. 1740, rather earlier than the building date of the house. It is a standard design with a roundarched opening flanked by engaged plain-shafted columns of Roman Doric character, rising from plain pedestals to support triglyphed entablatureblocks and a triangular open pediment. A short flight of stone steps rises into the deeply recessed doorway.

Above the doorcase is a small oblong opening containing an oval 'cobweb' window lighting the hall. The upper part of the exterior is faced with brown stock bricks, the Carlisle Street front, where the eastern pair of windows in each storey is blind, being severely plain and partially rebuilt. On the Dean Street front this severity is relieved by the cement dressings, evidently added, to the first-floor windows, each opening being framed with a stepped architrave, surmounted by a plain frieze and cornice, with a triangular pediment to emphasize the middle window. The second-floor window openings are plain, with stone sills and flat arches of gauged brickwork. There is a cement cornice, possibly original, below the attic face, which has been partly rebuilt, the window openings now having crude slightly cambered arches.

The ground floor is planned with a wide entrance hall and a spacious staircase compartment on the north side of the front and back rooms. Despite considerable alteration, some original features of interest have survived. The hall has a round-headed archway in its west side, leading to the staircase, and a wide ellipticallyheaded arch in the south wall originally opened to the front room. Both archways are dressed with plain-shafted Doric pilasters and moulded archivolts with plain keyblocks, all of wood. The doglegged staircase is of generous width, but the railing is mean-looking, consisting of slender Doric column-newels and thin bulbous-profiled balusters, rising from moulded closed strings to support a moulded handrail. The staircase is lit from windows in the north wall, which retain heavy-barred sashes, some obviously original, set in openings furnished with ovolo-moulded panelled shutters, and framed with bold ovolomoulded architraves. The first-floor front room has been altered and divided, but retains a good plaster cornice with an egg-and-dart moulding below the corona which is supported by bracket modillions and has rosettes on its soffit. The original doors that survive have six plain panels set in ovolo-moulded framing, the doorways having panelled linings and wide stepped architraves.

No. 91 Dean Street: the West End Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery

The present hospital building was erected to the design of A. Saxon Snell in 1912–13 (fn. 107) for use as a branch of the London Lock Hospital, Paddington, which had occupied the previous building on the site since 1862 (see below). In 1953–4 its use by the Lock Hospital came to an end and the building was taken over by the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases (now the West End Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery). (fn. 56)

It has a front four storeys high and five windows wide, designed in a neo-Georgian style. The ground-storey and basement windows are set in an arcade of channel-jointed stonework with two widely spaced arches on either side of the pedimented Doric porch, which is similar to the smaller, eighteenth-century doorcase at No. 90 Dean Street. Wide, straight, channel-jointed quoins flank the red-brick upper face, where the windows are dressed with stone architraves, those of the first floor being finished with cornices resting on consoles. The middle window of each storey is a wide one of three lights, the central light of the first-floor window being dressed with Ionic columns and a segmental pediment. A plain bandcourse underlines the fourth-storey windows, and the front is finished with a bold modillioned cornice.

The Former No. 91 Dean Street

Demolished

The building demolished in 1912 was a large house dating from 1757. (fn. 30) It had been built under a leasehold interest in a larger site (including Nos. 90 and 92 Dean Street and No. 17 Carlisle Street), held by George Smith Bradshaw, (fn. 108) the prominent upholsterer and tapestrymaker, previously of No. 59 Greek Street and No. 80 Dean Street (see Appendix, page 520). Bradshaw had his house and warehouse here until 1795. (fn. 109)

By 1799, and again c. 1804–12, when the house was principally occupied by another cabinet maker, Thomas Dawes, (fn. 42) General the Comte de Béhague was also resident here (fn. 110) and remained until his death in 1813. (fn. 111) The general was a former governor of Martinique who after an unsuccessful attempt to raise the colony against the French National Assembly had come to London and thence essayed counter-revolutionary landings in Brittany in 1797 and 1799. (fn. 112)

From 1823 to 1833 the ratepayer was the sculptor, William Behnes, who had acquired the premises as a studio. 'This was a fatal mistake, for the building was totally unsuited to his purpose and it was the expense incurred in trying to adapt it, and in building on a modelling room high enough to admit statues of heroic proportions, that crippled him financially.' (fn. 113) For the first three or four years Behnes also occupied No. 92. He was succeeded as ratepayer at No. 91 by Alexander Rippingille, artist, in 1834–6, and Scipio Clint, sculptor, in 1837. In 1838–9 the ratepayers were James Loft and Angus Fletcher, sculptors, in 1840–1 Loft alone, in 1842–4 Loft and William Scoular, sculptor, and in 1845– 1854 Scoular alone. All exhibited works from this address. A number of other artists also exhibited from here, including the sculptors, Timothy Butler (1828, 1833), E. Ryley (1833) and S. F. Woodington (1842–3, 1846–7).

From 1858 to 1861 the house was occupied by the St. Paul's Mission College (fn. 56) or clergy mission house. (fn. 114) In 1862 it was bought by the Hon. Arthur Kinnaird (later tenth Baron Kinnaird) and others (fn. 115) as a branch of the London Lock Hospital, Paddington. (fn. 42) In 1896 treatment was given to 349 in- and 21,932 out-patients. (fn. 116) The building was replaced by the present hospital in 1912 (see above).

The wide-fronted house demolished in 1912 was externally similar in style to No. 90 Dean Street. It had, however, a slightly projecting central feature, finished at the main cornice level with a stone pediment. The entrance door and flanking windows were set in round-arched openings with vermiculated keystones. The only noteworthy feature of an otherwise plain interior was a stone screen in the hall, Gothic in style and probably early Victorian, (fn. 107) which was no doubt installed by one of the sculptor-occupants.

No. 92 Dean Street

Demolished

The first house on the site was built between 1703 and 1706, fronting Crown (now Diadem) Court. In 1757 it was rebuilt, partially or completely, (fn. 30) under a leasehold interest held by George Smith Bradshaw, the upholsterer and tapestry-maker of No. 91 Dean Street. (fn. 117) Bradshaw seems to have used the building in connexion with his business (fn. 118) and until 1795 it does not appear to be separately assessed in the ratebooks. In that year it was again separately assessed, in Dean Street, to a George Smith, who was Bradshaw's son and also an upholsterer. (fn. 119) Smith, who left No. 92 in 1797 (fn. 30) may be identifiable with the noted cabinet-maker to the Prince of Wales (see page 520). It was perhaps in 1795 that the attractive shop front was inserted.

From 1833 to 1837 the occupant was P. A. Sarti, an Italian plaster-figure-maker, who was succeeded in his business here by James Loft and A. Fletcher, later Loft and William Scoular, and then Scoular alone, until 1854: in 1851 Scoular was living in the house. Sarti's successors also occupied No. 91. (fn. 120)

A photograph taken in 1920 (Plate 113b) shows that the Dean Street front was four storeys high and three windows wide. Filling the ground storey was a fine late Georgian shop front of painted deal, a composition of three bays, divided by plain-shafted pilasters with fluted Ionic capitals, supporting an entablature consisting of a narrow architrave, a deep plain frieze, and a modillioned cornice. In front of the two middle pilasters were free-standing columns, supporting a projecting section of the entablature and forming a porch to the shop doorway. The rest of the front had been faced with stucco, pointed to resemble ashlar, with wide stepped architraves to the windows, which retained heavybarred sashes of an early pattern. Between each tier of windows was an oblong panel framed by a raised moulding, and the front was finished with a cornice and blocking-course. The interior had been stripped of its original panelling and staircase. (fn. 107)