No. 4 Great George Street

VI.—No. 4 GREAT GEORGE STREET: (Demolished).

General Description and Date of Structure.

On 4th November, 1755, a lease was granted (fn. n1) to John Horne and William Wilkinson of a plot of ground with a messuage and other erections thereafter to be erected thereon on the south side of Great George Street, being the 16th house from King Street. The plot was described as bounded west by Delahay Street, and containing in front and rear 25 feet 2 inches, on the east side 76 feet and on the west 45 feet 8 inches.

No. 4 had, therefore, not yet been built. It had, however, been erected by 21st June, 1760, when the remainder of the lease was granted (fn. n2) to Augustus Boyd "of Lewisham Esq." It was demolished in 1910, and the site utilised for the building of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

The house had a plain brick front of four storeys over a basement, with plain bands and a modillion cornice similar to the adjoining premises. The entrance door had a semicircular fanlight with radiating bars, and the front windows to the first floor had wrought-iron segmental balconettes, which were probably of later date, and necessitated the lowering of the window sills to the floor level. The interior contained little of interest. There were three decorated lead cisterns in the house, the largest of which, 5 feet in length, was ornamented with three ribbed panels, crests, and devices and the date 1760 (Plate 24). The other cisterns had two ribbed panels, and bore the dates 1760 and 1761 respectively.

Historical Notes.

The names of the occupiers of this house before 1840, according to the ratebooks, were as follows (fn. n3) :—

In the Council's Collection are:—

General view of the exterior (photograph).
Newel to staircase on first-floor landing (photograph).
(fn. n4) Lead cistern dated 1760 (photograph).
do. (photograph).
Lead cistern dated 1761 (photograph).
Ground and first-floor plans (measured drawing).