No. 20
Architect, Robert Adam, 1771–5. Attic storey and
mansard roof added in 1936 by Messrs. Mewès and Davis
The façade of this house was extended in 1936
to include the rebuilt No. 21 to its south, and the
two houses are now owned and occupied in common.
Not much is known of the first house built here.
The site was agreed to be granted by the Earl of St.
Albans to Abraham Storey, the grantee also of the
site of No. 6, in January 1674(? 1674/5). (ref. 409) The
house appears, together with Nos. 21 and 22, in
the Pall Mall section of the ratebook for 1675. It
was then in the occupation of Sir Allen Apsley,
treasurer of the household to the Duke of York,
who was possibly in some sense responsible for the
supervision of the building of this house and the
house built to its south (see No. 21). The Apsley
family remained in ownership and occupation of
the house until 1771. In June of that year Sir
Allen's grandson, the first Earl Bathurst, came to
an agreement with Sir Watkin Williams Wynn.
He covenanted to obtain an Act of Parliament to
permit the sale of the house, which was entailed
under a marriage settlement, to Sir Watkin, who
had agreed to buy it for £18,500; in the meantime Lord Bathurst agreed to Sir Watkin's
demolition and rebuilding of the house. (ref. 410) The
Act was obtained, describing the house as 'very
ancient and much out of repair', (ref. 411) and on
23–24 August 1772 the property was conveyed to
its new owner. (ref. 410)
Sir Watkin, whose pleasure-loving temperament and taste for the theatre and the arts are
evident in his surviving account books, (ref. 412) had
been taking lessons in architecture from James
Gandon in the early months of 1771, and it was
Gandon whom he had employed to survey and
value Lord Bathurst's house in April of that year.
At the same time Gandon had made five plans,
two sections and an elevation for a new house on
the site, (ref. 413) but these were evidently not used,
although he was paid for them in January 1772. (ref. 414)
(fn. a)
A plaque in the present house records that work
began in August 1771. The earliest reference to
payments to workmen on the site is, however, in
April 1772, (ref. 415) and it is in that month when there
occurs the first reference to the provision of plans
by Robert Adam, who sent others in December. (ref. 416) In May 1773 Sir Watkin was viewing other
Adam houses, including Syon and Osterley. (ref. 417)
By 1774 the house was sufficiently advanced for a
porter, 'Old Pugh', to be in residence in February
of that year, when he was given a guinea 'to assist
him on the Road to Montgomeryshire'. (ref. 418) In
July curtains from the Wynns' house in
Grosvenor Square were fitted. (ref. 419) The plaque
states that the house was finished by August, but
joiners' work continued until February 1775. (ref. 420)
Work finally ended early in that year and May
Day could be celebrated with a musical breakfast,
and country dances below stairs. (ref. 421) It was in
harmony with these country ways that Sir Watkin
should keep a cow in St. James's Park. (ref. 422)
The work had been helped forward by
occasional distributions of drink to the workmen.
In October 1772 two guineas were given them
'on Account of Master Williams Wynn's Birth
this Day, 8 Minutes before 11 in the Morning,
Whom God Preserve'. (ref. 423) Less happily, two
workmen were killed in accidents.
Some accounts for the work survive, but they
are not complete and relate more particularly to
the finishing and furnishing of the interior, which
continued during the years 1775–7. There is no
record of any payment to a carpenter. Robert and
James Adam's bill for their plans and for surveying the work amounted to £1388 13s. and as this
was 'at 5 per Cent' the total cost, including their
bill, was presumably something over £29,000. (ref. 424)
This sum probably included not only the Adam
designs for a wide range of furnishings and
fittings, from an organ case to an inkstand, but
the cost of the actual furnishing materials and
upholstery.
The workmen included John Devall, mason;
Edward Gray, bricklayer (whose total bill
amounted to £3310 17s. 1d.); John Pratt of
Brook Street, Hanover Square, slater; James
Lloyd, glazier; D. Adamson, painter; William
Chapman, plumber; Joseph Rose, plasterer;
Richard Collins, joiner, who made figures on the
organ case; and William Kinman, coppersmith.
A number of different craftsmen in metal worked
on the house. Those engaged on the interior included Thomas Blockley and Thomas Tilston,
locksmiths; Edward Gascoigne, brazier; William
Bent, ironmonger; William Sparrow, wireworker; and William Hopkins, who provided iron
and steel grates. (ref. 425)
John Hinchcliff was paid £360 10s. for marble
chimneypieces, one of which contained basalt
tablets provided by Josiah Wedgwood, to whom
Sir Watkin was an early friend and patron. (ref. 426)
Bartoli, the scagliolist, also worked on this
chimneypiece. (ref. 427)
The paintings inset in the ceilings of the music-room, great drawing-room and Sir Watkin's
dressing-room, and in ornamental panels and overdoors were executed by Antonio Zucchi who also
painted door-panels and bookcases. In addition he
designed bas-reliefs and statuary for the chimneypieces, and wooden figures for tripods, and was
paid by the tradesman who supplied carpets for
painting a pattern. (ref. 425)
(fn. b)
The curtains, hangings and upholstery of the
main rooms were in pea-green silk damask.
The organ in the music-room was made by
John Snetzler. (ref. 423)
In 1783 repairs were needed in the 'back
court', where the floor of the laundry was found
to be dangerous and in need of support and the
kitchen floor decayed. Sir Watkin's failure to
reply to a letter from Robert Adam about this
work gave some offence to the architect. (ref. 425)
The Williams Wynns occupied the house until
1906 and owned it until 1920. (fn. c) It was then sold
to the Eagle Star and British Dominions Insurance
Company Limited and Messrs. Hampton, the
estate agents. (ref. 410) In 1935 the Distillers Company
bought the house and also the vacant site of No. 21.
In the following year Messrs. Mewès and Davis
built a new block of offices on the two sites, incorporating the principal parts of No. 20, which
was given (with No. 21) a mansard roof containing extra storeys. The façade of No. 20 was
restored nearly to its original appearance and the
design extended to form the façade of the new
building (Plate 171): the elevation thus created is
uncharacteristic of Adam in its treatment of so
long a frontage. No. 20 was damaged by enemy
action during the war of 1939–45 but has since
been restored. (ref. 429) The building is now known as
Distillers House.
Architectural description
The design virtually as executed was published
in the Works in Architecture of Robert and James
Adam, volume II, 1779, part II. Plate I shows the
'Plan of the Parlour Story, and principal Floor',
plate II, 'Elevation of the principal Front', plate
III, 'Plan and Elevation of a Screen-wall between
the Court of the House belonging to the Duke of
Leeds and that of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn',
plate IV, 'Front of the Offices towards the Court',
plate V, 'Parts at large in the Hall and Eatingroom', plate VI, 'Ceiling of the Eating-room',
plate VII, 'Ceiling of the music-room', and plate
VIII, 'Plan, Elevation and Profile, of an Organ in
the Music-room'. In the posthumous volume III,
plates XXIII, XXIV, and XXV illustrate respectively
'Ceiling of the library of Sir W. W. Wynn',
'Ceiling of Lady Wynn's dressing room', and
'Inkstand designed for Sir W. W. Wynn'. A
large number of drawings for the existing house
are preserved in Sir John Soane's Museum, including alternative designs for ceilings, chimneypieces, etc., and others for furniture, carpets and
silver plate. Some of the designs published in the
Works and preserved in the Soane Museum were
modified slightly in execution. The original
interior decoration is largely intact but certain
alterations have been made, not all of them easily
detectable, and some of the painted decoration
listed in the bills has disappeared. In restoring the
house after the war of 1939–45, most of the
ceilings were coloured according to Adam's designs where these had been preserved, but no
colour schemes are known for complete rooms.
Of the front of the house (Plates 171, 173a)
Robert Adam wrote: 'It is not in a space of forty
six feet, which is the whole extent of the elevation,
that an architect can make a great display of
talents. Where variety and grandeur in composition cannot be obtained, we must be satisfied with
a justness of proportion and an elegance of style.' (ref. 430)
Few would care to express dissatisfaction with
what was, before its recent extension, the finest
façade in the square and perhaps the most distinguished that Adam designed for a small town
house; constructed of Portland stone and paying
little regard to its original brick neighbours, it yet
lacked the self-assertiveness of Stuart's earlier
façade at No. 15.
The ground storey is rusticated, with three
round-arched recesses containing a doorway and
two windows, and four Corinthian pilasters rise
through the first and second floors to support an
entablature and a stone balustrade. The wide
basement windows have segmental heads and the
area is guarded by an iron railing with plain uprights and bands of decoration at top and bottom.
Four ornamental panels were designed to support
lamp-standards, though only those flanking the
entrance now do so, the other two being terminated by small urns. The existing lamps and
their supports date from 1936, when a nineteenth-century iron-trellised porch was removed, and
both they and the railings differ in some respects
from the original published design.
The bowed entrance steps are swept in to a segmental platform before the front door, which,
with its two side lights and large fanlight above,
fills the whole archway. The double doors have
three panels enriched with carved mouldings and
bands of fluting, and a pair of brass knockers which
are probably original. The architrave is carved
and the side lights, which have sills level with
those to the main windows, are flanked by
Corinthian half-pilasters supporting a fluted
frieze and an enriched dentil cornice running
right across the opening. The fanlight, which is
stated in the bills to be of copper, has two
concentric bands of ornament but is now very
much simpler than the original design. The
two square-headed ground-floor windows are set
in plain ashlar without architraves or projecting
sills.
The first-floor level is marked by a broad band
with a simple bed-moulding, supporting the
Corinthian pilasters and forming a sill to the first-floor windows, which are set in shallow roundarched recesses and have moulded architraves
flanked by panelled margins, a frieze with enriched paterae and pediments supported on carved
consoles topped by ram heads. Each opening has a
segmental metal guard, formed by intersecting
curves and topped by a band of fret ornament,
replacing a nineteenth-century balcony removed in
1936. The form but not the detail of the guards
follows the original Adam design which consisted
of rich baluster-shaped uprights with an ornamental band at top and bottom and was executed in
copper. The top rail of the guards is continued by
a pedestal moulding which is returned into each
window recess.
A fluted band marks the level of the second
floor where the plain square window openings
again have no projecting sills. The crowning
entablature has a moulded architrave, a frieze with
enriched paterae and a carved modillion cornice.
The balustrade rests on a blocking-course and has
simple turned balusters, plain dies and a moulded
capping. The original roof was hipped and
covered with Westmorland slates.
The plan (Plate 172c, 172d) is comparable to that
of Chandos House in Chandos Street, Cavendish
Square, designed a year earlier for the Duke of
Chandos; the two sites are of almost identical
frontage but the later house is altogether more
ambitious and elaborate. The front room is
nearly square with a deeper room behind it and to
the north is an entrance hall, a long staircase hall
and a secondary stair, all of equal width, and formerly three elaborately modelled rooms of diminishing size in a wing at the rear. The front room
has a segmental apse containing a doorway to the
back room, which is similarly shaped at either end,
the spandrels between the rooms being filled by a
closet and a small semi-circular apse open to the
staircase hall. The first floor repeats the arrangement below, and the second floor, reached by the
secondary staircase, is essentially similar although
the original plan of the wing at this level is not
known. A rejected scheme for the house, four
plans of which are preserved in the library of the
R.I.B.A. (Plate 172a, 172b), is not unlike that
executed but had triple window openings to the
ground and first storeys in front, and a longer
entrance hall divided by a colonnade from the
inner hall, at the rear of which rose the main
staircase in two equal flights with one short crossflight. The principal rooms were entered through
the semi-circular apse and the secondary staircase
was enclosed, with a passage leading to the rear
wing which had rooms of simple rectangular
shape.
In the existing house the stone-paved entrance
hall is dominated by the arch to the front door, its
fluted and moulded impost being continued round
the compartment. At the rear are two smaller
doorways with carved architraves, festooned
friezes and dentil cornices, the right-hand door
being false. A similar pair, without a frieze or
cornice, gives access to cupboards on either side of
the fireplace in the north wall (Plate 174a). The
skirting and chair-rail, like the architraves, are
slightly enriched but the six-panelled doors are
plainly moulded, that leading to the stair hall
being modern. The stone chimneypiece (Plate
183a) has an enriched architrave flanked by long
consoles supporting a carved frieze with a central
tablet bearing a tazza, a festooned ram head on
either side and end blocks with ornamented oval
paterae. The cornice-shelf is enriched with dentils
and a band of fluting, and over it has been fixed a
large lead plaque, presumably brought from some
other part of the house, with a crest and the
inscription SR. W. WMS. WYNN'S HOUSE BEGUN
AUG: 1771 FINISH'D AUG: 1774. In the centre of
each side wall above the impost-band, and over the
two doorways at the rear, are large roundels with
finely modelled trophies of arms. The main entablature has a frieze of ram heads linked by festoons
with small rosettes above them; the cornice is enriched with dentils and other ornament and the ceiling has a fluted elliptical band surrounding a smaller
panel of the same shape enclosed by a guilloche
moulding, with a large central rosette and radial
fluting decorated with fasces and the imperial eagle.
A draught-lobby has been formed inside the entrance door reproducing the original detail which
it obscures; the impost-band is carried across the
archway with blocks bearing enriched oval paterae
above the short Corinthian pilasters which flank
the opening. A large modern doorway now leads
directly into the front room.
The length and relative narrowness of the staircase hall (Plate 174b) are somewhat oppressive.
The fittings are comparable to those in the outer
hall with slightly richer mouldings, and the architraved doorcases have friezes decorated with
paterae containing satyr masks and rosettes, those
to the two main rooms being flanked by Corinthian
pilasters without bases and with cornucopiae in
the frieze above them. The six-panelled doors are
of mahogany, except for that leading to the
secondary stair which is of pine, and have a central
staff bead and carved mouldings with panel borders
of cross-fluting and rosette stops. All the principal
doors on the ground floor of the house are similar
and have the same brass furniture, designed by
Adam and supplied by Edward Gascoigne, consisting of a richly modelled circular knob linked by
festoons to a pair of oval escutcheons. Above the
two main doorcases are enriched panels containing
roundels, with paterae in the corners. The apse
has a semi-dome with an enriched cornice at
impost level and a fluted frieze bearing festoons
above the three round-arched niches which
descend to the floor. The semi-dome has ornamented tapered ribs rising from a deep blocking-course to a band of wave moulding near the apex
which contains radial leaf ornament. A second,
lower, band bears scroll decoration and the
intrados to the arch is enriched with guilloche and
reverse fluting.
The front room, formerly the eating-room
(Plate 176b), has a false doorway balancing that
from the staircase hall, and the segmental apse containing the two-leaf door to the rear room is
screened by a pair of fluted Corinthian columns
and antae, with enriched bases, supporting an
entablature with an ornamented soffit and a fluted
architrave, a frieze decorated with intertwined
garlands of husks containing rosettes, and a rich
dentil cornice. The whole entablature is carried
round the room and repeated on a smaller scale in
the doorcases which are flanked by panelled margins with drops of vine, and carved consoles
topped with ram heads, supporting blocks in the
frieze with enriched oval paterae. The two-leaf
doorway to the rear room is similarly designed but
the blocks are supported only by ram heads without consoles, the new doorway to the entrance
hall being copied from this. The white marble
chimneypiece originally matched the smaller doorcases with the addition of festoons to the ram heads,
but it now has neither frieze nor bed-moulding to
the cornice. There is an enriched skirting and a
chair-rail decorated with minute lion heads, the
window architraves and shutters being carved to
match the doors. The ceiling (Plate 176a) is in
Adam's early manner with octagonal panels containing rosettes in ornamented circles and more
rosettes in oak-leaf garlands connected by bands of
foliage. The apse is ceiled above the architrave
and has radial leaf ornament and intertwined garlands with small rosettes, the whole ceiling being
coloured in white and two shades of green, as in
the original design, with the addition of a pale grey
background.
The former music-room (Plate 177b) at the
rear has three openings in the segmental window
wall and opposite the chimney-breast is a recess
intended for the organ, flanked by two doorways
rather smaller than that from the front room. The
doorcases have carved architraves ornamented
with paterae, a fluted frieze with roundels containing classical heads and an enriched cornice.
There is a carved skirting and chair-rail and the
upper parts of the walls are divided into wide and
narrow panels enclosed by an enriched raised
moulding, and containing arabesque ornament
with trophies of musical instruments and a central lyre supported by children. The chimneybreast has drops of similar ornament flanking the
tall mirror above the chimneypiece, which is set in
an enriched gilt frame shown in Adam's drawing
topped by a wreath containing an Apollo head and
two lyres with anthemion ornament. The chimneypiece (Plate 183b) is of white marble with a
narrow banded reed-moulding to the opening, the
rich entablature having an architrave decorated
with paterae, a fluted frieze and a dentil cornice.
In the centre of the frieze and architrave, and
rising into the bed-moulding of the cornice, is a
large tablet carved with an exceptionally fine relief
of Apollo and the nine Muses to the design of
Antonio Zucchi. On either side of the opening is
an unfluted column of a simplified Corinthian
order, flanked by a half-pilaster, supporting
panelled blocks carved with standing female
figures, the cornice breaking forward above them.
Over the two side doors are oil paintings on a
relatively large scale, of pairs of figures playing
musical instruments, set in enriched gilt frames.
Nathaniel Dance was paid £210 in 1775 for these
two and another of Orpheus which is no longer in
the room, Sir Joshua Reynolds supplying one of
St. Cecilia in the same year for 150 guineas, (ref. 431)
presumably that which was sold from the Wynn
collection at Sotheby's on 5 February 1947. The
height of the latter picture is approximately eight
feet and the Orpheus was probably a fellow to it,
for Adam intended two such pictures to occupy
the panels flanking the chimney-breast instead of
the plaster ornament now in them.
The long narrow painting above the double
doorway, representing 'Shepherds and Nimphs,
doing honor to the Ashes of Correlli or Handel',
is by Zucchi who charged £50 for it in 1776. The
same bill lists a circular picture for the centre of
the ceiling, costing £18, which has disappeared,
and four smaller circles, costing £48, which are
still in situ. (ref. 425) The ceiling (Plate 177a) is surrounded by a band with anthemion enrichment,
enclosing elaborate fan decoration at either end
and a large rectangle containing the four circular
paintings, in rich frames, overlying an ellipse with
scroll decoration in the centre of each side. An
inner ellipse, defined by a guilloche band, encloses
a motif with widely scalloped edges and the broad
fluted frame to the central circle is hung with
swags, trophies of musical instruments and other
ornament. The original colour scheme has been
closely followed and is in green, purple and white
with touches of terra-cotta pink. The organ made
by John Snetzler in 1775 for £250, (ref. 428) was removed from the house more than fifty years ago:
Adam's design for the case (Plate 184a) shows it
to have had a richly panelled base and, in the upper
part, a large circular opening with a coat of arms
below it, flanked by boys holding festoons, a
draped female figure at either side and a roundel
above containing a man's portrait. The narrow
recessed wings were framed by fluted Corinthian
pilasters and there was a rich frieze and cornice
with a central block supporting a reclining statue
of Apollo. In June 1777, £42 was paid to Collins
the joiner 'for the 2 Figures of the Organ to replace those made by Mr. Ansell'. (ref. 424)
The first room in the rear wing (Plate 178b),
originally the library, is a rectangular compartment
with a chimney-breast projecting from the north
wall and a large Venetian window opposite. At
either end was formerly a shallow extension
screened by a pair of unfluted Corinthian columns
in antis, supporting a frieze decorated with festooned ox heads and rosettes, and an enriched
dentil cornice. The nearer columns have been
removed and those at the far end replaced by a
pilastered partition containing a double doorway.
Both colonnades were recessed beneath segmental
arches springing from a fluted impost-band level
with the cornice to the order, the solid tympana
above having fan decoration enclosed by a wave
moulding, and swags and tassels suspended from
the intrados of the arch with small segments
of paterae. The Venetian window has unfluted
Corinthian columns and antae resting on pedestals
formed in the dado; they support a frieze and cornice which differ slightly from those to the
colonnades but are at the same level, and the
arched central opening of the window has an
ornamented archivolt. Above the impost are rectangular and shaped spandrel panels, the segmental
arch at either end of the room being flanked by
amphorae on stands, and the chimney-breast
having a segmental panel within a lunette of husks
based on a band of scroll ornament set in the
impost. On either side of the chimney-breast are
round-arched niches containing fan decoration in
their heads above projecting cupboards with
plainly panelled doors, the upper pair framed by
Corinthian pilasters which rest on the chair-rail
and support a frieze decorated with urns and
classical heads in roundels, linked by festoons, and
an ornamented cornice. Parts of the walls above
the enriched chair-rail are divided into long narrow panels but the chimney-breast is plain, the
white marble chimneypiece having a carved architrave, flanked by margins with intertwined drops
of husks, and a carved cornice-shelf without its
bed-moulding or the frieze, shown in Adam's
drawing, decorated with festooned ox heads and
rosettes between a pair of enriched oval paterae.
The main entablature to the room has a frieze
decorated with connecting wreaths of oak leaves
containing anthemion ornament, and an enriched
cornice. The ceiling (Plate 178a) has a large
circular panel enclosed by a plain moulding overlaid by four roundels which, with another in the
centre, are painted in monochrome with scenes
from the lives of classical poets. They were
executed by Zucchi for the sums of £48 and £18
respectively, the bill stating erroneously that they
were for Sir Watkin's dressing-room. (ref. 425) The
subsidiary roundels have segments of enriched fan
decoration within the circular panel which also
contains festoons and arabesques hung from the
large central roundel, similar decoration on a
larger scale being employed in the outer part of the
ceiling which is enclosed by a string of husk ornament with a rich band containing anthemion at
either end.
The two end portions of the room were
generally of a similar design: that remaining is
divided into three compartments by pilasters
answering the vanished columns and by crossarches with panelled intradosi matching the soffit
of the entablature to the colonnade. The middle
compartment has a groined ceiling with an enriched
patera in the centre, husk ornament to the groins
and rich fan decoration at the springings of the
vault and in the middle of each side, the adjoining
compartments having barrel-vaults enriched with
arabesques and pairs of long, lozenge-shaped panels
containing single paterae. The dentil cornice
differs from that in the main part of the room and
there is a plain frieze. The door from the music-room has an enriched architrave and facing it is a
shallow round-arched recess with a frieze and
cornice running across it matching that to the
bookcases. In the centre of the rear wall is a
similar recess and the secondary staircase is reached
through a jib door. The doorway at the other end
of the room has an enriched architrave and cornice
with a plain frieze, and is probably original
although in a new position.
Sir Watkin's dressing-room beyond was an
octagon of which three sides were removed when
it was enlarged at the expense of the library, a
second window being put in place of the former
doorway leading from the library into the courtyard. Adam's drawing for the room preserved in
Sir John Soane's Museum (Plate 185a, 185b) shows
a fireplace opposite the entrance and an unpierced
wall with plaster decoration facing the rectangular
window opening, the other four sides having
round-arched recesses, three containing cupboards
and the fourth a doorway similarly designed. The
recesses flanking the fireplace survive, with their
narrow carved surrounds and patera-ornamented
frieze and enriched cornice at impost level, the
painted two-leaf doors being probably original
although not in accord with the drawing. Similar
recesses now occur opposite the two windows, the
second being necessarily a modern insertion, and
the enriched skirting and chair-rail are carried
across them with plain cupboard doors below and
modern, glazed, mahogany doors above. The
windows have been given arched heads internally
and in the spandrels above are repeated the small
enriched paterae (placed by Adam only over the
recesses). The long narrow panels which occur
on each side of the room were intended to contain scroll decoration. The doorcase is probably
original and has a carved architrave, a frieze contained by scrolls and decorated with four paterae
(Adam's drawing showed only one) and an enriched dentil cornice supported on carved brackets
dissociated from the architrave. The urn and
sphinxes shown above this doorway in the drawing,
and the winged griffins with a similar urn, intended for the tympana of the arched recesses, do
not now exist. The white marble chimneypiece
consists merely of an enriched architrave supporting a plain shelf, but Adam intended to have
decorated margins at either side, a fluted frieze
with a carved tablet and end blocks, an enriched
cornice-shelf and an upper part with a richly
framed panel, a frieze with paterae and a scroll
pediment. The entablature to the room has a
frieze decorated with leaf ornament and a rich
cornice. The ceiling is coved, but now without
the festoons and paterae designed for it, and the
flat central area, enclosed by a band of wave
moulding, is quite plain although a rich circular
panel and festoons of husks with anthemion drops
were intended. The oval powdering-room at the
end of the wing, with its water-closet and a small
service staircase, no longer exists.
The principal staircase (Plate 174b) rises in two
short flights with a long one between them and is
of stone with a shaped soffit and carved spandrels
to the steps. In July 1774, William Kinman was
paid £200 'to Copper Railing for ye Grand
Stairs', a 'Copper pillar for the bottom' costing a
further £5. (ref. 425) The railing consists of baluster-shaped panels decorated with anthemion and ram
heads, linked by festoons to long drops of husks
suspended from lion masks. Above is a band containing urns and other ornament and a moulded
mahogany handrail which is supported at the bottom curtail by the baluster-shaped 'Copper pillar'.
The level of the first floor is marked by a band
with enriched paterae framed by acanthus buds,
the ornament being continued on the edge of the
landing. The ground-floor apse, with its three
niches and semi-dome, is repeated on the first floor
(Plate 175a) and the impost, which is decorated
with swagged urns and paterae, the enriched
capping being ornamented with lion masks, is
continued round the compartment to a shallow
round-arched recess in the opposite wall, at one
time occupied by a copy of Raphael's painting of
the 'Transfiguration'. Recessed lunettes based on
the impost occur in each end wall and the doorways correspond with those below and have architraves with carved mouldings and bands of fluting,
a frieze decorated with festoons, paterae and
rosettes, and an enriched dentil cornice. The
doorcases flanking the apse have plain margins,
with carved brackets supporting frieze-blocks
enriched with paterae. The carved skirting and
chair-rail are returned into the three niches
which have an impost-band enriched with scroll
decoration, and fan decoration in their heads.
The intrados of the arch to the semi-dome has a
guilloche moulding and the dome itself has leaf
ornament at its apex and a radial pattern with large
acanthus leaves contained by a narrow fluted band
and a wider band of wave moulding below, from
which are suspended swags and drops tied by ribbons, and three roundels, two containing reliefs of
seahorses and one an enriched urn. Over the
larger doorcases are square panels with broad enriched frames enclosing roundels containing figure
subjects in high relief, with arabesques in the
spandrels. The panels are repeated on the opposite
wall with taller similarly framed panels below
them containing romantic landscapes painted in
oils on canvas, for which a Mr. Roberts of Dublin
was paid £52 10s. in April 1775. (ref. 432) This must
have been either Thomas Roberts, who was born
in Waterford towards the middle of the eighteenth
century and who practised landscape painting in
Dublin, or possibly his younger brother Thomas
Soutelle Roberts, who was both a painter and an
architect and who died in 1826. (ref. 433)
A rich cornice and anthemion-ornamented
frieze mark the level of the second floor (Plate
175b), the walls above being divided by Corinthian
pilasters into three unequal parts with a shallow
round-arched recess in the centre of each end wall
and similar recesses in the side walls flanking a
wider one with a segmental head. The enriched
impost moulding is stopped at each recess but the
skirting and ornamented chair-rail are interrupted
only on the south wall where the central archway
and tall rectangles in the recesses on either side are
pierced to light a passage giving access to the former bedrooms. These openings are guarded by an
ornamental metal balustrade with an elaborate
central panel, enriched with anthemion, and a
moulded mahogany handrail. The entablature to
the Corinthian order has a vestigial architrave, a
deep frieze with acanthus ornament and a rich
dentil cornice. The cove of the ceiling is divided
by foliated bands and decorated with rectangular
panels containing cupids and scroll ornament,
flanked by urns on tall stands and large roundels
with radial ornament enclosed by bands of
guilloche. The flat portion of the ceiling is surrounded and divided into three by enriched beams,
the narrow end compartments containing panels
with circular reliefs of figure subjects flanked by
winged sphinxes, and the central compartment
having arabesque ornament in the corners and a
large elliptical roof-light, surrounded by a narrow
banded reed-moulding, and having a low drum
decorated with rosettes and festoons of husks and a
small enriched cornice.
The ante-room (Plate 182a) above the entrance
hall has an asymmetrically placed doorway from
the landing and another to the front drawing-room, a wide chimney-breast and a high groined
ceiling. There are carved mouldings to the skirting and chair-rail and also to the doorcases which
are architraved and corniced, their friezes
decorated with festoons and paterae. The painted
doors and window shutters have carved panel
mouldings, the window opening having an architrave to match the doorcases. The white marble
chimneypiece, supplied by John Hinchcliff for the
sum of £150, (ref. 425) also corresponds to the doorcases
with the addition of fluted members at either end
rising to carved consoles which support blocks in
the frieze bearing enriched paterae. The corniceshelf breaks forward over them, setting back to a
plain margin at either side, and the tall mirror
above the chimneypiece has a carved gilt frame
corresponding to Adam's design but with an additional moulding and without the oval plaque and
scroll decoration intended to crown it. The main
frieze and cornice match those to the doorcases
and chimneypiece but on a larger scale and with
richer mouldings. The tympana above have wide
central panels with small spandrels on each side,
enclosed by guilloche mouldings and containing
arabesque ornament with pairs of winged griffins
and circular reliefs of figures in fluted frames. The
groined ceiling has a flat pattern applied to it with
the curious effect of a folded drawing. A central
ellipse, containing oak-leaf decoration, is surrounded by a rich band of the same shape inside a
larger figure with concave sides and a broad enclosing band decorated with connecting vesicas
and acanthus buds. There is further anthemion
ornament and festoons and chains of husks, with
rich radial decoration, at the springing of the vault
above small oval panels containing paterae. The
colours, copied from Adam's drawing, are green,
white and purple with small areas of pale yellow.
The front drawing-room (Plate 181a) is the
same shape as the eating-room below with corresponding doorways, but is higher and has no
colonnade to the segmental apse. There is a
carved skirting and fluted chair-rail and the walls
are plain, the upper part being formerly hung with
damask. The doorcases have fluted architraves
flanked by narrow panelled pilasters with simple
Corinthian caps and no bases, the panels containing
a guilloche moulding: the friezes are slightly recessed at either end with female masks set in ovals
and in the centre are carved with an anthemion
pattern, the dentil cornice having enriched mouldings and minute rosettes decorating the corona.
The doors, like all those on the first floor, are
painted and have narrow carved mouldings to the
panels, the window openings having matching
architraves and shutter panels. The chimneypiece,
of white marble, is perhaps the most ambitious in
the house. The carved architrave is flanked by
broad margins with fluted cappings and panels
carved in relief with draped female figures standing
on elaborate pedestals and playing musical instruments. In the frieze above them are richly
decorated roundels containing small female masks,
and a long central tablet rising into the bedmoulding of the cornice which matches those to
the doorcases. The tablet, which extends the full
width of the architrave to the opening, is carved
with 'Aurora going before the Sun and the
different Hours', and all three reliefs, which are
comparable in quality with the tablet in the music-room chimneypiece, were executed by an unknown
sculptor to the design of Antonio Zucchi. Above
the chimneypiece is a tall mirror in a carved gilt
frame, which with another between the windows
agrees with Adam's design except for the additional guilloche band. The chimney-mirror has
flanking pilasters with painted scroll decoration
and a small cornice, but lacks the carved ornament
intended above it and for which three different
designs are preserved in Sir John Soane's Museum.
The main entablature to the room is an enlarged
and richer version of that to the doorcases. The
ceiling has a central elliptical panel containing
radial leaf ornament enclosed by concentric bands,
the broad outer pair decorated with scrolled
acanthus and anthemion in connecting vesicas
having between them festoons and drops of husks
and small rosettes, with four roundels containing
reliefs of figures. Further roundels decorate the
corners of the ceiling with more festoons and
arabesque ornament, and the ceiling of the apse,
defined by an enriched band, has radial leaf
ornament within a richly decorated arc, and four
ornamented radii forming panels with festoons,
rosettes and roundels containing classical heads.
The colour scheme of the ceiling is very close to
Adam's original design, in pale shades of green
with small areas of pale terra-cotta and purple and
touches of dark terra-cotta and a strong blue.
The second drawing-room (Plate 181b) has
apsed ends corresponding to the music-room below
with semi-domes following the segmental curve of
the elaborately decorated ceiling: the upper part
of the walls is hung with damask and the chairrail and skirting have richly carved mouldings.
The three two-leaf doors (Plate 183c) have
doorcases of carved architraves flanked by fluted
half-pilasters of a composite order without bases:
they support a section of architrave, and the frieze,
which is decorated with thin scrolls of acanthus
emanating from a half-figure of a child, sets back
above them with ornamented classical altars in relief, the enriched cornice following suit. The door
panels have carved mouldings and figures painted in
colours by Antonio Zucchi with other decoration
which has not survived. The architraves to the
window openings and the carved shutter panels
match the doorways, and the curtain boxes, which
may be original, have an anthemion pattern resembling that framing the central panels in the
ceiling, with blocks decorated with rosettes and a
cresting of palmettes. The chimneypiece, again of
white marble, has a small carved architrave to the
opening flanked by engaged, fluted, Ionic columns
enriched with bead mouldings and panelled margins containing long drops tied by ribbons. There
is a full entablature, breaking forward over the
columns, with a moulded architrave, an elaborately
ornamented frieze and an enriched cornice-shelf.
In the centre of the frieze is a tablet carved with
the triumph of Venus, probably by the same hand
as those already described and again to the design
of Zucchi. It is flanked by scroll ornament with
children, more richly carved than that to the doorcases, and the blocks over the columns repeat the
reliefs of classical altars with ornamented oval
paterae beyond. The tall mirror above the chimneypiece has a guilloche moulding surrounding its
carved gilt frame and flanking pilasters matching
those in the front drawing-room. The frame itself
corresponds to the original drawing and is repeated
on the opposite wall and on both sides of the doorway in the apse. Adam intended the top to be
ornamented with a classical altar flanked by children and scrolls, corresponding to the frieze of the
chimneypiece.
The main entablature to the room consists of
a fluted architrave, a scroll-ornamented frieze
and a rich cornice, each apse having an arch with
a decorated soffit, the face richly ornamented with
a radial anthemion pattern. The ceiling (Plate
180b) is divided into three sections by broad bands
defined by guilloche mouldings and decorated
with painted wreaths of husks containing anthemion and acanthus ornament. At the base of
each band is a pedestal with a festooned plinth, a
fluted capping with a pair of ram heads and an enriched tazza in relief hung with festoons and drops
of vine. The line of the pedestals is continued by a
small moulding above long panels containing
painted arabesque ornament, the plinths being
connected by a band of fluting, similar longitudinal bands dividing each section of the ceiling
into five compartments. The wider central compartments contain elliptical panels enclosed by
bands of anthemion ornament, each with four
blocks enriched with rosettes, an inner band of
painted leaf decoration, a guilloche moulding and
a central rosette within an ornamented frame. The
compartments on either side have long narrow
paintings of classical subjects surrounded by husk
ornament and beyond again are lunettes enclosed
by decorated bands springing from enriched blocks
bearing female masks, the bases ornamented with
swags and small rosettes. The lunettes contain
monochrome paintings of draped female figures
festooning elaborate tripods. The shallow semidomes have radial leaf decoration within an anthemion-ornamented band, from which are suspended painted festoons and drops, with small
rosettes and circular panels containing paintings of
children. An enriched moulding is arranged in large
crenelations to run beneath the paintings and
above the elegant tazzas between them, which are
supported on elongated stands resting on pedestals
decorated with festoons and ram heads, set in a
band of fluting. Zucchi was responsible for the
paintings incorporated in the ceiling and for all the
painted decoration, most of which is in colour.
His bill for the whole amounted to £282. (ref. 425) The
colour scheme intended by Adam was pale green,
pink and white with fairly strong blues and other
colours in the pictures and a certain amount of
gilding. The ceiling is now much warmer in tone
with various shades of buff in place of white and
rather more gold leaf than is shown in the original
drawing.
Lady Wynn's dressing-room (Plate 179b) in
the rear wing corresponds to the library below but
has a groined ceiling over the central compartment
with arches framing barrel-vaults at either end.
The arches have ornamented intradosi and spring
from flat panelled antae with an enriched dentil
cornice, a deep frieze with single decorated
paterae and a moulded architrave, the whole entablature being carried round the end compartments with long panels in the frieze containing
festoons of ivy with drops and small rosettes. A
similarly decorated frieze is continued across the
rear wall with an anthemion-ornamented wave
moulding in place of the cornice and a fluted band
level with the architrave. On the window wall the
lower band is interrupted by the cornice to the
Venetian window and the wave moulding continues only far enough to form the impost to a wide
band of arabesque ornament with fluted borders,
which is repeated on each side of the room framing
the tympana: these have decorated roundels containing reliefs of figure subjects with flanking
urns on tall stands hung with festoons. The
Venetian window is divided by fluted Ionic
columns, on pedestals formed in the dado, supporting a reduced version of the main entablature with
an enriched archivolt to the central opening. The
skirting and chair-rail are carved, the latter enriched with lion heads, and at the ends of the room
the walls have triple arcades with single return
arches at either side. They are formed by simple
pilasters with fluted caps supporting narrow enriched archivolts, two at the near end of the room,
and one at the far end forming doorcases, with the
cap mouldings continued across the lintels. The
doorway in the south wall, leading to the rear
drawing-room, is similarly formed and the arch
facing it has had a fluted lintel added in recent
years. The other end compartment to the room is
lit by a window with a false arched head which
may be modern, although Adam's original design
(Plate 180a), preserved in Sir John Soane's
Museum, was considerably varied in execution
and it is not entirely clear what later alterations
have been made.
The chimneypiece is of white marble. The
opening has a simple architrave with a carved
moulding, flanked by fluted Ionic columns supporting a fluted architrave, a frieze with end blocks
and a central tablet, and an enriched corniceshelf. The frieze is inlaid with festoons and
drops of ivy with rosettes, executed in coloured
scagliola by Bartoli who added further decoration
between the flutes of the columns at a total cost of
£33. The tablet in the frieze bears a 'basalt'
plaque, enamelled with a representation of Venus
in her chariot attended by cupids, which, with
smaller plaques formerly set in the blocks at either
end and decorated with cupids and dolphins in
painted oval frames, were supplied by Wedgwood
and Bentley in 1775 for the sum of £26 5s. (ref. 434)
Zucchi was paid an extra £8 for providing designs
for them in distemper and the marble work was
carried out by John Hinchcliff for £150, the total
cost of the chimneypiece being £217 5s. (ref. 425)
The ceiling (Plate 179a), which is liberally
decorated with arabesques, has a rectangular central figure with concave sides, containing an ellipse
with a rosette and anthemion ornament, and fan
decoration in the spandrels. Four small elliptical
reliefs of figures surround it within a pair of
elliptical guilloche bands, and a third band of fluting
contains the whole of the ceiling decoration except
for the corner spandrels. There is the same
strange effect of a flat pattern applied to a groined
ceiling as in the ante-room. The two barrelvaults have arcs of guilloche ornament forming
shaped panels with arabesque and fan decoration and
roundels containing rosettes and figures in relief.
The original bedroom beyond is a square compartment with a low dome supported on pendentives, a shallow segmental-headed recess for the
bed in the back wall and a chimney-breast opposite
the doorway from the dressing-room. It appears
to have been somewhat altered, for the bed-recess
is now entirely plain and there is no architrave to
the doorway, though that to the square-headed
window opening has slight enrichment, as have the
shutter panels and the skirting and chair-rail. The
chimneypiece is of wood with marble slips and has
a carved moulding to the architrave and plain
margins with long carved consoles supporting an
enriched cornice-shelf. The frieze has an elaborate
pattern of anthemion and scroll ornament and
over the shelf is a wide mirror with plain jambs,
a frieze decorated with lozenge-shaped panels
containing rosettes and an enriched dentil cornice
level with the capping to the chimney-breast.
Above is a plain blocking-course shown in Adam's
drawing with enrichment and supporting a pair of
busts and a central group of figures with an urn.
The pendentives spring from female masks with
radial ornament above and roundels containing
cupids in relief (Plate 185c). At the base of the
dome is a frieze not unlike that to the chimneypiece, a dentil cornice and a blocking-course with
enriched paterae from which spring inverted festoons and drops of husks. In the centre of the
dome is a circular panel containing a rosette surrounded by fan ornament, and an outer ring of
arabesque decoration is contained by a fluted band
enriched with paterae. Adam designed a good
deal of additional decoration both for the dome
and the pendentives but it was presumably never
carried out. The present colour scheme does not
correspond to the original which was pale green
and white with touches of purple. A jib door led
formerly to an oval powdering-room, which, like
that below, has been destroyed along with its
closet and the small staircase.
On the second floor the passage flanking the
stair compartment has a small apse with two internal windows and gives access to a large room in
front and at the rear, both with wide bed-recesses,
and to a small room corresponding to the anteroom below. The ill-lit area between the principal
rooms has lost its original layout. The rear wing at
this level has been entirely reconstructed. Both the
bedrooms and the passage have slight enrichment
to the skirting, chair-rail and architraves and also
to the small plaster cornice, but the doors and window shutters are plainly panelled. The rear room
has a segmental bow window and the bed-recess is
flanked by strange Corinthian antae with pedestals
formed in the dado, supporting a beam with a
panelled soffit. The wooden chimneypiece has an
architrave with a fluted moulding and marble
slips, flanked by very simple panelled pilasters
supporting blocks in the frieze with female masks;
the frieze also has a panelled, central tablet, and
the enriched cornice-shelf breaks forward above
the blocks. In the small front room the fireplace
is flanked by recesses with round-arched heads, and
the chimneypiece, which may not be entirely
original, has an architrave with a carved moulding
and marble slips, flanked by narrow panels rising
to blocks in the frieze carved with urns. The
frieze is deeply fluted and the cornice has an
enriched bed-moulding and minute wave ornament to the square edge of the shelf. In the main
front room the chimneypiece is finer than the other
two. It is again of wood, the architrave having a
carved moulding and marble slips, and flanking
margins with long carved trusses supporting
blocks in the frieze bearing oval paterae with small
female masks. The frieze has serpentine fluting
and the cornice-shelf is enriched with dentils and
carved mouldings.
The rear of the house has been entirely refaced
with white glazed bricks but it is clear from the
disposition of the windows that it can never have
had a formal appearance. The two-storeyed office
building at the back of the courtyard was given an
elaborate and entirely self-contained stone front,
and a quite unrelated design, executed in Liardet's
stucco, was applied to the low screen wall against
No. 21. Neither survived the rebuilding of 1936.
The front of the office building (Plates 173b,
184b), which was largely occupied by the stable
with a laundry over it, had a rusticated ground
storey with single square-headed windows flanking
a central projection containing a round-arched
doorway. A broad band marked the level of the
first floor which had a moulded pedestal supporting
a Corinthian order and forming the sill to rectangular recesses at either side, intended to contain draped female statues. Above them were
rectangular panels of the same width with urns
and scroll decoration in relief, and on either
side were plain pilasters supporting an entablature
with a fluted frieze, enriched cornice and blocking-course. The central projection was flanked by
engaged unfluted columns, supporting a panelled
frieze and pediment and resting on pedestals linked
by a balustrade of simply turned stone balusters.
A large round-arched recess with impost blocks
contained a Venetian window with Ionic columns
supporting a plain frieze, a dentil cornice and an
enriched archivolt. The building had a slated
pyramidal roof and an area in front was guarded by
a plain flat-topped railing.
The decorated part of the screen wall (Plates
173c, 184b) was contained by shallow wings and
had pedestal mouldings and an entablature with a
deep-fluted frieze, a dentil cornice and a blocking-course. In the centre were three round-arched
recesses with pairs of engaged Ionic columns supporting an impost-band ornamented with paterae
and fluting. The tympana had radial decoration,
the central compartment, with anthemion enrichment, differing from the other two and none quite
agreeing with the published design. The archivolts were plainly moulded and in the spandrels
were urns on tall stands with festoons and drops of
husks suspended from three lion masks in the
frieze. The wings had rectangular openings based
on the capping to the pedestal and above the impost were roundels containing figures in relief,
shown in the design with ribbons, festoons and
drops, which, like the festooned urns on the
blocking-course, may never have been carried out.
Adam also intended to have classical statues in the
recesses, on decorated circular pedestals, and terms
supporting urns between the paired columns with
trios of figures backed by larger urns on semicircular pedestals in front of the rectangular
openings in the wings.