CHAPTER X
Jermyn Street
Jermyn Street takes its name from Henry
Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, to whose trustees
the whole of Pall Mall Field was leased in
1661 by the trustees of Henrietta Maria for thirty
years. Subsequent grants extended this leasehold
term to 1740. The grant of the freehold of St.
James's Square in 1665 to the Earl's trustees included part of the ground on the south side of
Jermyn Street which the Earl already held on lease.
On 1 April 1661 the Earl's trustees granted
leases for twenty-three plots in Jermyn Street, of
which nineteen were on the north side and extended north to Piccadilly; all these leases were
for twenty-one years from Michaelmas 1660. (ref. 1)
All the leases which his trustees subsequently
granted of land in Jermyn Street were for terms
ranging from forty-one to fifty years. By July
1675 a further thirty-nine such leases had been
granted. The lessees included George Plucknett, (ref. 2) who witnessed Richard Rider's will (see
page 317), William Harbord, esquire, (ref. 3) perhaps the
politician of that name, (ref. 4) Ralph Norris, (ref. 5) perhaps a
relation of Francis Norris, bricklayer, (ref. 6) and Henry
Murrell, (ref. 7) woodmonger. (ref. 8)
The street is first mentioned by name in the
ratebooks of St. Martin's for 1667, where it is
called 'Jarman Streete'; (fn. a) there are 56 entries, of
which 36 relate to the north side. In 1675 108
names are recorded, 54 on each side. (ref. 9) Ogilby and
Morgan's map (Plate 2) shows that the building
of houses along both sides of the street had been
completed by 1681–2.
Jermyn Street did not originally provide access
either at its west end to St. James's Street or at
its east end to the Haymarket (see Plate 2).
Houses had been built along these two streets a
few years earlier than in Jermyn Street, and it may
be that the abrupt termination of the extremities
of the latter was due rather to the difficulty and
expense of buying and demolishing a number of
the existing houses in St. James's Street and the
Haymarket than to any deliberate design.
Rocque's map of 1746 shows that a narrow opening (called Little Jermyn Street) to St. James's
Street had been made, and at the eastern end a
passage called Hammonds Court led to the Haymarket. John Nash's plan for the formation of
the New Street (now Regent Street) from Carlton
House to Marylebone Park provided also for the
widening of the west end of Jermyn Street and for
the continuation of the east end into the Haymarket, and these improvements were executed in
c. 1819. (ref. 10) The formation of Regent Street also
involved the demolition of a number of houses in
Jermyn Street.
The freehold of about half of Jermyn Street
still belongs to the Crown. Besides the church,
churchyard and glebe land (the latter now occupied by Nos. 36–40 (consec.) Jermyn Street) the
most notable exception is the range of houses on
the south side of the street, comprising Nos. 88–
107 (consec.); they stand due north of St. James's
Square and their site formed part of the ground
granted freehold by the Crown to the Earl of St.
Albans's trustees in 1665. Most of the oldest surviving houses in Jermyn Street, notably Nos. 88–
90, 93, 95–96, 98–99, stand in this range, which
has been unaffected by the policy of periodic rebuilding exercised over Crown property (Plate 203).
The block on the south-east corner of Jermyn
Street and Duke Street (Nos. 80–87 Jermyn
Street and Nos. 18–20 Duke Street) was part of
the Crown estate until 1830. In that year the
Crown granted this and other property between
Jermyn Street and Piccadilly to the Governors
of Bethlem Hospital. The grant was made in
exchange for property owned by the hospital at
Charing Cross where the Government wished to
make improvements. (ref. 11) The Governors have
owned this property at the corner of Jermyn Street
and Duke Street ever since and the hospital's coat
of arms can be seen fixed to the outside walls of
several of the houses. They may be 'the arms in
Iron' ordered to be fixed on all the hospital's
buildings in 1836. (ref. 12) The property between
Piccadilly and Jermyn Street (much of which is
now occupied by Messrs. Fortnum and Mason)
has all been rebuilt since it was acquired by the
hospital, but on the south side of Jermyn Street
much less rebuilding has taken place.
From an early date there was a marked difference in the social status of the inhabitants of the
western and eastern halves of Jermyn Street. Most
of the more highly rated houses stood to the west
of the church, and a number of them were occupied by persons of note. To the east of the church
the rateable value of the houses declined progressively, due no doubt to their proximity to St.
James's Market. Some of them were occupied as
shops on the ground floor and as lodgings above.
On his visits to London Thomas Gray, the poet,
stayed in Jermyn Street 'at Roberts's the hosiers,
or at Frisby's the oilman's. They are towards the
east end, on different sides of the street.' Gray
'dined generally alone, and was served from an
eating house near his lodging'. (ref. 13)
In 1815 Jermyn Street was said to contain 'a
whole range of hotels. . . . All the articles of consumption are of the best; and the accommodations,
much to the injury of taverns and lodging-houses,
combine all the retirement and comforts of home
with the freedom of access, egress, and ingress,
which one generally expects when abroad.' On
the north side were Reddish's, Blake's and Topham's, and on the south side Miller's (see page
277), and the St. James's. (ref. 14) The latter was
situated half-way between Duke Street and Bury
Street; Sir Walter Scott stayed there for three
weeks in the summer of 1832, immediately before
his final journey to Abbotsford, where he died on
21 September. (ref. 15) Nos. 85–86 Jermyn Street were
occupied from c. 1830 until 1903 by the Waterloo
Hotel, later the Hotel Jules. (ref. 16)
A list of distinguished residents and lodgers in
Jermyn Street whose names are not mentioned
below is contained in the Appendix.
Nos. 18–21 (consec.) Jermyn Street
Messrs. J. Lyons and Company's first teashop
at No. 213 Piccadilly proved so successful that
they entered into an agreement with the Office of
Woods and Forests in January 1895 (ref. 17) for a building lease of Nos. 18–20 (consec.) Jermyn Street,
adjoining their premises to the south. They intended to redevelop this property as an extension to
their refreshment room, with chambers or flats
on the upper floors. Designs for the building were
submitted by Arthur Green of Suffolk Street,
Pall Mall. (ref. 18)
In the autumn of 1895 Lyons transferred their
original building agreement to Edward Keynes
Purchase, architect, of Queen Victoria Street. He
replaced Green's original design with one of his
own, comprising a building in two parts. Facing
Jermyn Street was a block of chambers and shops,
while the northern part of the site was to be used
as an extension to Lyons' Piccadilly premises.
This latter block appears to have been finished by
February 1896. (ref. 18)
The Jermyn Street range was begun in 1896
and completed in 1897 as Gordon Chambers. (ref. 17)
The four shops on the ground floor were renumbered as 18–21 (consec.) Jermyn Street. The
building has a crowded stone front five storeys in
height, with a garret in the roof. Triple Ionic
pilasters of red granite divide its ground storey into
five bays, the centre one containing a pedimented
doorway and the outer ones shop windows, while
above them run a tall fascia and a cornice. The
upper storeys are also divided into five unequal
bays by broad pilasters, but here the spacing is
different, with three windows in the middle bay,
one in each flanking bay, and three in each outermost bay, the latter having bay windows rising
through the second, third and fourth storeys.
Narrow pilasters divide the windows within the
bays, and each floor level is marked by a panelled
frieze. The windows are generally flat-headed and
plain, but in the third and fourth storeys roundheaded windows with carved spandrels provide a
welcome relief from the predominating maze of
straight lines. The small crowning cornice is surmounted by a balustrade, decorated with urn
finials in positions corresponding with the broad
pilasters below.
A plan of the first floor is reproduced on page
158 of Sydney Perks's Residential Flats of All
Classes, 1905.
Nos. 24–27 (consec.) Jermyn Street See page 257.
The Museum of Practical Geology
Demolished. Site now occupied by Simpson Ltd.
The Geological Survey was established in 1835
with (Sir) Henry De la Beche as its first Director
General. (ref. 19) In July of that year De la Beche wrote
to the Chancellor of the Exchequer suggesting
the formation of a collection of specimens illustrating the country's mineral wealth, (ref. 20) and in 1837 a
building to house such a collection was obtained in
Craig's Court, Whitehall. In 1838 a commission
was appointed to ascertain the most suitable stone
for the construction of the new Houses of Parliament, and as a result of the ensuing investigation a
large number of specimens of building stones were
added to the collection at Craig's Court. Within a
few years the museum and the Survey staff there
had outgrown the space available, (ref. 21) and larger
premises were needed.
Largely through the influence of Sir Henry De
la Beche, a scheme was prepared for a new and
much larger museum building, with offices and
laboratories for his staff on a site between Jermyn
Street and Piccadilly. (ref. 22) The proposed site was
Crown property and included Darby Court, an
old passageway connecting these two streets. In
1845 the scheme for the erection of a building to
house the Museum of Practical Geology, the
Mining Records Office and the Geological Survey was approved by the Government. (ref. 23) The
Commissioners of Works were made responsible
for the construction of the building and James
Pennethorne was commissioned to design it. (ref. 20)
The cost was to be defrayed out of the land
revenues of the Crown and the site was granted,
by verbal arrangement and without any formal
lease, to the Commissioners of Works at a ground
rent of £853 per annum. (ref. 24) An Act of Parliament
was also obtained to allow the closure of Darby
Court. (ref. 25)
By November 1845 the demolition of the
existing buildings on the site had begun, and by
May 1847 the basement storey of the new building was complete. (ref. 24) Despite official announcements, the purpose of the building was commonly
misunderstood. There were press reports that it
was intended for a new post office, (ref. 26) whilst the
Commissioners of Works received applications
for the tenancy of the shops which, it was understood, were to be built under the new museum. (ref. 27)
(fn. b)
The building (Plates 46, 47, 48a) was probably
completed in 1849, and in the following year the
interior was furnished and the exhibits installed. (ref. 22)
The museum was opened by the Prince Consort
on 12 May 1851, (ref. 28) and contained in addition to
the exhibition rooms a library, a large lectureroom and laboratories and offices for the Survey
staff. (ref. 29) The cost of the building up to 1 January
1851 was £43,633, which included heating, ventilation, laboratory fittings and exhibition cases; (ref. 30)
the contractor was John Kelk. (ref. 24) The fine bronze
doors, which had been commissioned from Alfred
Stevens for the Jermyn Street entrance, (ref. 31) were
never executed, perhaps because of the artist's
'procrastinating love of perfection'. (ref. 32) Stevens's
designs are now in the Victoria and Albert
Museum. (ref. 33) The stone used for the exterior of the
building was from the Anston and Bolsover
quarries, (ref. 34) from which much of the stone
used for the Houses of Parliament was also
supplied. (ref. 35)
Within a few years the accommodation in the
new building had become cramped, and the
laboratories and teaching staff were transferred to
South Kensington. (ref. 36) In 1855 additional accommodation in an adjoining house in Jermyn Street
was acquired. (ref. 37)
In 1898 a report of the Select Committee on
the Museums of the Science and Art Department
recommended that the museum should be removed to a more convenient site in Exhibition
Road. Between 1904 and 1906 negotiations
were on foot for leasing the site and buildings to
Messrs. J. Lyons and Company, who were prepared, in return, to erect another building elsewhere for the museum, at a cost not exceeding
£50,000. (ref. 24)
No definite decision was taken about the transfer of the museum until 1928. In the meantime
the yearly attendance had fallen from a pre-war
level of 50,000 to about 21,000 in 1927. (ref. 38) In
1928 serious structural decay was discovered. Six
of the great cast-iron roof beams were found to be
broken and it had also become clear that there had
been some movement in the foundations, perhaps
caused by bombs which had fallen in Piccadilly, a
few yards to the east of the buildings, on 19
October 1917. (ref. 39) Public interest in the whole
matter was aroused and the removal of the museum
and the disposal of the valuable Piccadilly site on
more advantageous terms were the subject of a
number of parliamentary questions. (ref. 24)
The erection of a new museum on the west side
of Exhibition Road began in 1929; the collections
in Jermyn Street were transferred to the new
building in 1934 and the museum was opened in
its new quarters in 1935. (ref. 40) In that year the site
in Jermyn Street was leased to an investment company and the old building was demolished shortly
afterwards. (ref. 41) The site is now occupied by Simpson Ltd. (see page 258).
Pennethorne's clever plan (Plate 46) made
effective use of a difficult site having the great
depth of some 155 feet between the two fronts,
the only other possible sources of daylight being
from windows opening to the small areas of
properties adjoining the long sides, and from rooflights. The southern half of the ground storey
consisted of a large exhibition-hall, divided by
four-bay colonnades into three aisles, the middle
one being narrow and having the northern end of
its ceiling open to the upper exhibition-hall, and
its southern end curtailed by steps descending to
the Jermyn Street entrance. The northern half of
the ground storey contained a lecture-theatre, Ushaped and having stepped seating descending to
the basement level, and fronting to Piccadilly
were offices and a library. The fine double staircase at the Jermyn Street entrance rose to the first
floor, where there was a very large U-shaped
exhibition-hall, ringed by two upper galleries and
covered by a segmental roof of cast-iron construction, the cove and central range of panels being
glazed (Plate 48a).
Although both fronts were admirable, that to
Jermyn Street was especially fine (Plate 47a, 47c).
Built in brick and dressed with stone, it was an
astylar composition of two lofty storeys raised on a
plain stone plinth containing the four oblong
windows lighting the basement, two on each side
of the great doorway. This dominating feature of
the ground storey was intended to provide a rich
setting for the bronze doors of Alfred Stevens, a
magnificent design never realized. The double
doors erected in their place were recessed in a tall
rectangular opening, framed by a wide moulded
architrave, its outer members highly enriched
with carving and returned in at the foot to rest on
a panelled plinth. This architrave and the oblong
frieze-panel over the doorway, containing seven
small square panels carved with scallop-shells,
were framed by a band-architrave carved with a
repeating pattern of highly formalized leaves
flanking a central stem, the doorcase being finished
with an enriched dentilled and modillioned cornice. In the brick wall face on each side were two
rectangular windows, furnished with wooden
casements and dressed with enriched and moulded
stone architraves, cornice-capped and rising from
moulded sills above panelled aprons, flanked by
consoles, the sill being continued between the
windows. Long-and-short chamfer-jointed quoins,
and a stone bandcourse carved with a simple wavescroll, gave an appropriate finish to the ground
storey. In the lofty upper storey were five rectangular windows, evenly spaced over the groundstorey openings, each being framed with a
moulded architrave rising from a plain pedestalapron and finished with a plain frieze and dentilled cornice, the aprons being linked across the
brick piers by continuing the stone plinth and
moulded sill. This storey was also quoined, and
finished with a narrow moulded architrave, a plain
frieze, and a rich cornice with dentils and carved
bracket-modillions. The low pedestal-parapet
was raised on a high plinth for proper effect.
The Piccadilly front (Plate 47b, 47d) was entirely
of stone and more richly treated. Again the
composition was astylar, but the two storeys were
more strongly defined and each was finished with
an entablature. The six tall round-headed windows of the ground storey were recessed in the
bays of an arcade, the five-sided piers having
panelled shafts, the arch soffits and splayed reveals
being similarly panelled. The archivolts rose from
moulded imposts and the spandrels had raised
panels in wide sunk margins, with plain roundels
above the arch-crowns (Pennethorne's original
drawing shows the spandrels carved with ornament surrounding oblong tablets, perhaps intended
to receive the names of eminent geologists). This
storey was bounded by straight chamfer-jointed
quoins, and finished with a plain Doric entablature. The upper storey was underlined with a
pedestal having projecting panelled dies below the
six evenly spaced windows, each of which was
dressed with an enriched architrave, a plain narrow
frieze, and a triangular pediment. This storey
was bounded by long-and-short quoins and
finished, like the Jermyn Street front, with a narrow moulded architrave, a plain frieze, an enriched dentilled and modillioned cornice, and a
plain pedestal-parapet.
Nos. 39 and 40 Jermyn Street
This building (Plate 275b) was built between
1911 and 1913 as a westward extension to the
Prince's Hotel (see page 260) at Nos. 36–38
(consec.) Jermyn Street. The architects were
Messrs. Emden, Egan and Co. of Lancaster Place,
Strand.
It is a five-storeyed building with a stone front
designed in a quaint 'Art Nouveau' manner. The
ground storey has been altered, but from the
centre of the three storeys above projects a wide,
shallowly curved bow of five lights having on
either side of it a segmental-headed recess containing two, or at the fourth storey three, windows
in each storey. The bow rests on a bracketed platform which is continued across the front of the
building and railed in at either side of the bow to
form balconies. The five lights of the bow are
divided into a group of three flanked by two single
lights and these divisions are marked in the third
and fourth storeys by four lean and curiouslooking columns resting on a stringcourse at
second-floor level and supporting a strongly projecting cornice. The third-storey windows in the
flanking recesses have an iron-railed balcony
before each pair and the heads of the recesses are
finished with dentilled dripstones which are overlapped by the cornice of the bow. In the centre of
the fifth storey are four small windows arranged in
pairs and at either side is a similar group of three
windows. Completing the elevation is a small
entablature with a modillion cornice and above
it rises a steep mansard roof of almost vertical
pitch.
Nos. 53–55 (consec.) Jermyn Street:
Cox's Hotel
Demolished
In April 1836 William Cox, the proprietor of
the Royal Hotel (formerly Gould's Hotel) at
No. 55 Jermyn Street, applied to the Office of
Woods and Forests for a building lease of these
premises and of the adjoining house No. 54, then
in separate occupation.
On the advice of its joint architects, Thomas
Chawner and Henry Rhodes, the Office of Woods
agreed to this request, subject to the proviso that
the existing recessed front of No. 54 should be
built up in line with that of No. 55. In October
1836 Cox submitted plans for a new hotel. These
were soon approved and work started shortly
afterwards. The new building was complete by
the following summer, (ref. 42) and a Crown lease was
granted to Cox in September 1837. (ref. 43) Chawner
and Rhodes were themselves the architects. (ref. 44)
The hotel was evidently successful, for by 1842
William Cox had taken over No. 53 Jermyn
Street, which adjoined it to the east. (ref. 42) The hotel
had some fashionable pretensions and a number of
peers and members of Parliament used it as a permanent London residence. (ref. 16)
Cox remained the proprietor until 1863. He
was succeeded by Mrs. Eliza Maude Cox, presumably his widow, who continued until 1872–
1873. (ref. 45) The hotel came to an end in 1923–4, (ref. 16)
when Nos. 53–55 Jermyn Street were demolished
to make way for the present six-storeyed building,
designed by Messrs. Yates, Cook and Darbyshire. (ref. 46)
Nos. 57 and 58 Jermyn Street
The former Nos. 56, 57 and 58 Jermyn Street
were demolished in 1879 and rebuilt in the following year as a single block numbered 57 and 58
Jermyn Street. (ref. 47) The architects were Messrs.
Archer and Green of Buckingham Street, Strand,
and the builders Messrs. Bywaters. The external
carving was by Mr. Kruner (possibly Joseph
Kremer, a carver of Augustus Square, Regent's
Park). (ref. 16) The basement and ground floor of the
new premises were designed for use as a tailor's
shop, with workrooms in part of the first floor.
The remainder of the upper floors were divided
into suites of residential chambers. (ref. 48) The building
suffered some damage during the war of 1939–45.
The present building has a stone front of Second
Empire Renaissance design, with a ground storey
raised on a semi-basement, a lofty stage containing
the second and third storeys, and an attic storey
surmounted by exceptionally high dormer windows.
The composition consists of a central face, with
three widely spaced windows to each storey,
flanked by narrow wings loaded with rather pompous ornament which overlaps from each storey to
the one above. The ground storey of the central
face has rusticated pilasters between the windows
and a clumsy iron railing before the semi-basement. There are prominent cornices above the
ground- and third-storey windows, and a balcony
with a wrought-iron railing projects from the
third storey, resting on consoles flanking the
second-storey windows. In the ground storey of
each wing is a doorway with a huge cornice-hood,
supported by consoles carved with festooned lion
heads and surmounted by acroteria ornaments with
scrolls and festoons, the eastern doorway being
flanked by iron lamp-standards which were
probably added early this century. The single
windows in the second and third storeys of the
wings are framed by a pair of carved pilaster-strips
and a giant segmental pediment carried on consoles,
the small attic-storey window being flanked by
plain pilasters. Above the crowning cornice runs
a plain parapet broken by the fronts of three
pedimented dormer windows, the central dormer
having three lights divided by Doric pilasters.
Nos. 59 and 60 Jermyn Street
When the leases of Nos. 59 and 60 Jermyn
Street expired in April 1883, the Office of Woods
demolished the two old houses and offered the
combined sites for a new building. The new lessee
was T. H. Ayres; his architect was John Robinson of Middle Scotland Yard, but Ayres appears
to have supervised the building operations himself. Work began in the early summer of 1884
and was completed in 1885. (ref. 49) The Office of
Woods had specified that the façade was to be of
Portland stone and of a design equal in quality
to that of the new Nos. 57–58 Jermyn Street. (ref. 50)
The ground floor was originally designed with
two shops, but in October 1885 Robinson was
granted permission to change these to residential
chambers like those on the upper floors. In 1904
Robinson converted the western half of the ground
floor into a shop, although the present front does
not appear to be of that period. (ref. 51) The upper floors
were used for many years as service flats; they and
part of the ground floor are now used by the
Over-Seas League. (ref. 16)
Robinson's front conforms with the main
horizontal lines and proportions of its neighbour
at Nos. 57–58, and is designed in an equally
elaborate, but far less ponderous Renaissance manner. Each of the four storeys is divided into three
bays, the centre bay narrower than the other two,
by broad piers, or in the fourth storey by narrow
paired pilasters, the last supporting a prominent
bracketed entablature. The central bay of the
ground storey contains an ornate, round-arched
doorway with a Corinthian porch, and the remaining bays are filled with windows. The outer
bays of the second and third storeys have bay windows set in shallow recesses, and the fourthstorey windows have round arches springing from
pilasters. The third- and fourth-storey entablatures have ornamental friezes, and the pilasters
are decorated, in the second storey by cartouches,
and in the third storey by enriched panels. Above
the crowning entablature rise three elaborately
dressed two-light dormer windows, and at either
end of the parapet is a tall obelisk with a ball-finial.
Nos. 70–72 (consec.) Jermyn Street and Nos. 21–24 (consec.) Bury Street
In 1901 the Office of Woods and Forests
agreed to grant a building lease for Nos. 70 and 71
Jermyn Street and No. 25 Bury Street. The
prospective lessee was G. F. Harrington, auctioneer and surveyor, who had been connected
with Standen & Co. during the rebuilding of their
premises at No. 112 Jermyn Street in 1900–1
(see page 283). Reginald Morphew, who had
designed No. 112 Jermyn Street, was now commissioned by Harrington to design his new block
of residential chambers, with shops in Jermyn
Street and Bury Street. The Office of Woods
stipulated that the main façades were to be of
Portland stone and the southern end of the Bury
Street front of brick and stone. When Morphew's
designs were submitted to the Office of Woods in
March 1902, the Crown surveyor found them
'quaint in character and rather bald'. He persuaded the architect to add more ornamental detail to the façades. (ref. 52)
The old houses on the site were demolished
during the first half of 1902, and by March 1903
the new building was nearing completion (Plate
274a). (ref. 52) The building was severely damaged by
blast during air-raids in April and October of
1941. It is now known as Tilamp House.
Morphew's building has the same highly
original flavour that characterizes his earlier work
at No. 112 Jermyn Street, although here the 'Art
Nouveau' influence is more evident. On the angle
is a square seven-storeyed tower with an imitation
loggia beneath the boldly projecting crowning
cornice, and flanking it are five-storeyed fronts
with similar cornices broken by gables. In the
centre of each storey of the Jermyn Street front is
a wide segmental-headed opening, flanked in the
second, third and fourth storeys by segmental
bow windows. The head of the centre opening in
the ground storey, which forms the main entrance,
is loaded with ornament carved by Gilbert Seale,
and the bows above are linked by ponderous balconies, the topmost forming a deep coved cornice.
Completing this front is a single gable in the
centre of which is a wide window with a prominent
carved sill and dripstone, the five lights being
divided by Ionic columns. The Bury Street front
is an expanded version of that to Jermyn Street,
having a pair of bows at either side of the centre
window with a gable corresponding to each pair,
and, in addition, an extra window at the north end
of each storey, those in the three principal upper
storeys being round-arched with enriched dripstones. Plans of this building, and a short note on
it, are contained in Sydney Perks's Residential
Flats of All Classes (1905), fig. 153, pp. 155, 157.
No. 80 Jermyn Street: the Bunch of
Grapes
The original house on this site was one of four
erected by William Younge about 1674. (ref. 53) From
1783, at least, it has been occupied by dealers in
liquor. In that year, when it was occupied by
John Hickin(g)bottom, proprietor of the British
Hotel (see page 278), it was described as an old
building, and wine vaults below were mentioned.
Samuel Rickards of Piccadilly, distiller, then
owned the Crown lease. (ref. 54) When the freehold of
the property was acquired by the Governors of
Bethlem Hospital in 1830 (see page 271) the
current Crown lease still had three years to run. (ref. 55)
The house was probably partially rebuilt or refaced shortly afterwards and a new lease was
granted in 1835 to Joseph Blockey, wine merchant, (ref. 16) for sixty-one years. (ref. 56) The name of the
present public house, the Bunch of Grapes, appears
first in the Post Office Directories in 1912, but
there was a tavern of the same name somewhere in
Jermyn Street in 1759. (ref. 57) George Raggett and
Sons, ale and stout merchants, (ref. 58)
(fn. c) occupied part of
the house for a time; they vacated it in 1907. (ref. 16)
The building was severely damaged by bombs in
the war of 1939–45, and the two storeys which
remain contain little of architectural interest. It
formerly had four storeys with a garret in the mansard roof. The stuccoed fronts to Jermyn Street
and Duke Street are respectively three and four
windows wide. (ref. 59)
Nos. 81–83 (consec.) Jermyn Street:
the Cavendish Hotel
The present hotel occupies three houses in
Jermyn Street, No. 81, with a frontage of about
forty feet, and Nos. 82 and 83, each with a frontage of about twenty feet. No. 81 was one of four
houses erected about 1674 by William Younge. (ref. 53)
Although it has undergone many alterations it
appears never to have been completely rebuilt at
one period. In the 1680's it was occupied by Sir
Robert Gayre or Geere, (ref. 60) who gave a set of plate
to the parish church (see page 45), and from
1706 to 1729 (ref. 61) by Henry Paget, first Earl of
Uxbridge. (ref. 4)
In 1747 the lease of the house, together with
that of the corner house on the west (No. 80),
was purchased for Sir John Shelley, baronet, by
his agent Charles Smelt. (ref. 62) The canted bay at the
rear of No. 81 was probably added during Sir
John's occupation. In 1775 the lease of the house
was put up for auction and purchased by Robert
Mayne. (ref. 63)
No. 81 became a hotel towards the end of the
eighteenth century. (ref. 64) In 1811 Robert Miller,
hotel keeper and wine merchant, petitioned for a
new lease of the house, 'for many years past known
as Miller's Hotel'. It was said to be very old,
although 'both the fronts appear to have been
rebuilt'. (ref. 65) Miller obtained a new lease in 1816
and undertook to spend £1500 by September 1816
on the erection of an additional storey with attics
in the roof, the construction of a new staircase
'with a handsome Iron sky-light', and other
general repairs. He was also granted at the same
time a new lease of No. 20 Duke Street which was
part of the hotel premises, and of No. 84 Jermyn
Street. (ref. 66)
For a short period in the 1830's the hotel was
called the Orléans Hotel but in 1836 its name was
changed to the Cavendish. It became famous
under the management of Mrs. Rosa Lewis, who
succeeded Excelsior Lewis and became proprietress
in 1904. (ref. 16)
In 1911 the Governors of Bethlem Hospital
(who had owned the freehold since 1830, see
page 271) granted Mrs. Lewis a reversionary
lease of the Cavendish Hotel together with the
Hotel Andre (the former British Hotel at Nos.
82 and 83 Jermyn Street), a private hotel at No.
84 Jermyn Street, and Nos. 18, 19 and 20 Duke
Street. She undertook to spend £5000 on improvements. (ref. 67) She remained the proprietress until
her death in 1952. (ref. 68)
Although there is no evidence of a complete
rebuilding, No. 81 (Plate 203b) retains no trace of
late seventeenth-century work and was probably
rebuilt by stages. The house contains a basement,
four storeys and a garret, and has a broad, five
windows-wide front dating, probably, from the
late eighteenth century. It is, however, difficult
to be certain because the house was bombed and
much of its front is a restoration in modern yellow
brick. The window openings have plastered
reveals and the sashes are complete with glazingbars, though probably not the original ones, while
before each third-storey window is a finely
patterned wrought-iron balcony. There is a
raised bandcourse at sill level in the second storey
and another, stuccoed, bandcourse marking the
level of the third floor. The ground storey has
been altered, but in the bay west of centre is an
entrance porch with two fluted Doric columns.
The back elevation is partly concealed by later
additions, but there remains visible a five-sided
bay window of pinkish-yellow brick which rises
through three storeys, each storey having three
lights. Investigation was restricted to the ground
floor, where only one large room at the back was
of interest. This is lined with ovolo-moulded
panelling and finished with a modillion cornice,
the dado being blank with a moulded rail. In the
west wall is an ornate white marble chimneypiece
with a shouldered architrave, fluted and flanked by
scrolls, and an entablature with an anthemion
plaque in the centre of the frieze.
Nos. 82 and 83 Jermyn Street were rebuilt on
the site of two earlier houses in 1727 by Benjamin
Timbrell of St. George's, Hanover Square, carpenter, for Richard Waring of Jermyn Street. (ref. 69) In
1801 they were purchased by Samuel Barlow and
were let by him in 1803 to John Hickinbottom, (ref. 70)
the proprietor of the British Hotel, which he
probably established there at this time. (ref. 71) Hickinbottom also obtained possession of some stables at
the rear of Nos. 82 and 83 which in 1804 he converted into a coffee-room and laundry with some
'small sleeping rooms' over them. (ref. 70)
The hotel was not a success. Hickinbottom
fell behind in the payments of his rent but he persuaded Barlow that all would be well by 'representing that he was laying out more money than the
said Rents would amount to in the improvement
of the premises' and that as the business was in 'so
flourishing a state' Barlow's money was secure.
By 1813 the rent due to Barlow amounted to
£1300, and on pressing for payment he discovered
that Hickinbottom's affairs were 'in a very
embarrassed state'. The latter was declared a
bankrupt, apparently for the second time, and Barlow recovered the two houses by an ejectment. He
found that no substantial improvements had been
carried out 'but that many alterations calculated
merely for the convenience of the said John
Hickinbottom's late business of a Hotel keeper
have been made deteriorating rather than improving the true value of the premises'. (ref. 70) Barlow
was granted a new lease in 1819. (ref. 71)
The hotel continued to be known as the British
Hotel until 1908 when its name was changed to
the Hotel André. (ref. 16) In 1911 it was taken over by
Mrs. Rosa Lewis and since then has formed part
of the Cavendish Hotel (see above).
Nos. 82–83 form a four-storeyed building with
a stuccoed front, six windows wide, which
probably dates from the early nineteenth century
(Plate 203b). If the carcase is that of Benjamin
Timbrell's houses no indication of it remains,
either inside or out. The ground storey is rusticated with shallow horizontal channelling and
forms the basement for a Doric order, the three
pilasters of which divide the second- and third-storey windows into groups of three. There are
no pilasters in the fourth storey but above the
heads of the windows is a raised bandcourse and
below the coping of the parapet a minor cornice.
In the ground storey a wide doorway occupies the
two bays east of centre, and at either side of it,
springing from a plain area-railing, is an elaborate,
cast-iron lampholder. A continuous balcony with
a plain iron railing projects before the secondstorey windows, and before each of the windows
in the third storey is a smaller balcony of the same
pattern. It was possible to investigate only a small
part of the interior and of this the only feature of
any interest is a large white marble chimneypiece,
plainly designed and probably contemporary with
the front, in the eastern of the two first-floor front
rooms.
No. 84 Jermyn Street
This was one of the three houses assigned in
1720 to Richard Waring, (ref. 72) but unlike the other
two (Nos. 82 and 83) it was apparently not rebuilt
within the next few years. In 1811, when
Robert Miller, who had probably used the house
for his wine-merchant's business (see page 277),
held the Crown lease, it was said to be old 'but
substantial' and required only about £300 to be
spent on repairs. (ref. 65) He received a new lease in
1816 and covenanted to spend not less than £700
in repairs by September 1817. (ref. 66)
This is the best of the original houses in Jermyn
Street, both in quality and state of preservation,
although like the others it has lost its ground storey
to a modern shop-front (Plate 203b). Now containing a basement, four storeys and a garret, it has a
stuccoed front, three windows wide, with raised
bandcourses at second- and third-floor levels, and
box-frames in the second- and third-storey windows, though not the original ones. The fourth
storey may be a later addition.
Greater interest attaches to the back wall,
which is built of fine, pale yellow stocks lavishly
dressed with red rubbing bricks. The windows
have slightly curved heads and all but those in the
fourth storey contain box-frames, while at secondfloor level is a raised bandcourse of red brick. At
the western end is a tall Doric pilaster, also
dressed with red brick and with a dentilled capital
of cut brick, and this rises through three storeys,
being continued by a pilaster strip in the fourth
storey. Built out on the east is a two-roomed
closet wing, three windows wide, which has the
same characteristics as the back of the main block
except that its slightly projecting southern room
has no bandcourse at second-floor level. The
closet has subsequently been heightened by a
storey and extended at the southern end.
The plan of the house is the familiar two-room
arrangement, with an entrance passage on the
west leading to a dog-leg staircase at the back, and
a projecting closet wing. The only unusual
feature is that the closet wing has two rooms on
each floor instead of one. Unfortunately the upper
storeys could not be investigated, but a little of the
original work does survive on the ground floor.
There are box-cornices in the back room and the
two closet rooms, the latter having six-panelled
doors and panelled shutters, the panels being set in
ovolo-moulded framing. Parts of the original
staircase, which rises to the third floor, remain,
having closed moulded strings, turned balusters,
broad moulded handrails, square panelled newels
with flat moulded caps, and turned pendants. The
walls are furnished with a dado of plain rebated
panelling as far as the second floor, and the firstand second-floor landings have box-cornices.
Nos. 88–90, 93–99 (consec.) Jermyn
Street
That part of the south side of Jermyn Street on
which Nos. 88–107 (consec.) now stand was included in the freehold grant made to the Earl of
St. Albans's trustees in 1665. These houses have
therefore been unaffected by the policy of periodic
rebuilding exercised over Crown property.
About ten years seem to have elapsed after the
grant before this part of the street was developed.
1675 is also the approximate date for the building
up of the northern end of York Street, (ref. 61) and of the
yards now known as Ormond and Apple Tree
Yards, which run from east to west behind the
houses in Jermyn Street.
In 1675 a site on the west side of York Street
with a frontage of 200 feet to Jermyn Street was
leased in five lots by the Earl's trustees for terms
of forty-five years. (ref. 73) Nine houses were erected
shortly afterwards (ref. 61) and some features from these
original buildings appear, from architectural
evidence, to be preserved in the present Nos. 89–
90, 93 and 95–96. No. 88, to the west of the site
leased in 1675, and Nos. 98–99, to the east of
Duke of York Street, also retain parts of older
buildings and they too were probably erected
about 1675. (ref. 61) Although these houses are undistinguished and have had very few noteworthy
inhabitants they are remarkable in that they
represent a fragment of the original development
of the area.
No. 88 was occupied in 1679 by 'Esq. Ashburnham', perhaps William Ashburnham the
royalist, who died in that year. (ref. 74) From 1696
until 1700 the occupant was (Sir) Isaac Newton,
who moved in the latter year to a house next door
(now demolished, on the site of No. 87) where he
lived until 1709. (ref. 75) The freehold of the house was
sold in 1730 by Lord Dover's trustees and devisees. (ref. 76) From 1799 until 1851 it was occupied
by Floris, the firm of perfumers, which still
carries on business at No. 89. (ref. 77)
In 1675 the site of No. 89 was leased to
Maurice Hunt, (ref. 78) who occupied the house from
about 1686 to 1701. (ref. 75) Since 1810 the firm of
Floris has occupied the house. (ref. 77)
The site of No. 90 was leased to John Walmesly
in 1675. (ref. 79) Walter J. Miller, architect, was employed to supervise repairs in 1883. (ref. 80)
<Nos 91 and 92, the Savoy Turkish Baths, were erected to designs by George Somers Clarke in 1862. They were demolished in 1976.>
Nos. 93–96 were built on a plot leased to
George Mann in 1675. (ref. 81) No. 93 was altered in
1882 by T. W. Stevens, architect. (ref. 82) No. 96
appears in the ratebook for 1686 as 'the Blackmore's head'. It was presumably from this public
house that the stable yard at the rear (now Ormond Yard) took the name of Blackmoor Head
Yard, as shown on Rocque's map of 1746 (Plate
5). A deed of 1729 mentions a vault lying in
front of the house under Jermyn Street. (ref. 83) In
1841 the name of the house was changed from the
Blackmoor's Head to the Rose Tavern, and under
this name it continued in use as a tavern until
1916. (ref. 16)
Nos. 89–90 (Plate 203a, fig. 48), 93 and 95–96
are a standard type of terrace-house, each one
originally containing a basement, three storeys and
a garret, with a closet wing projecting from the
back and barrel-vaulted cellars extending beneath
the street pavement. Their fronts have mostly
been rebuilt with a covering of poor, early nineteenth-century stucco-work, and the whole range
heightened by a storey, but a remarkable quantity
of the late seventeenth-century work does survive.
The fronts are three windows wide but give
little other indication of their original appearance,
which can perhaps be best imagined by comparison with the former No. 107 Jermyn Street
(of which there is a photograph in the London
County Council's collection), where the exposed
brick front was carried up to a stone-coped parapet,
and the storeys were defined by raised bandcourses
placed immediately above the segmental heads of
the windows, the jambs of which were dressed
with a lighter-coloured brick. Among the surviving houses only No. 90, with box-frames in its
second- and third-storey windows and a solitary
raised bandcourse at third-floor level, can offer
any such features. No. 90 is of particular interest
also in that it has a blind, or formerly blind,
half-window at the eastern end of each storey. All
the houses have back walls of dull-red brick,
except for No. 96 where the bricks are purplybrown, and the floor levels of all but Nos. 90 and
96 are marked by raised bandcourses. The windows have segmental heads and some still contain
box-frames, although the sashes have been replaced. The projecting closets are usually of brick
and set to the east, but No. 89 has a larger, timberframed closet on the west, an arrangement which
may also have existed at No. 96 before it was
altered.
In these houses each floor invariably has a large
room at the front with a smaller room and a staircase compartment at the back, and only in the
positioning of the closet and the exact placing of
the chimney-breast in the back room is a touch of
variety introduced. The staircases are of the dogleg type, and substantial portions of original work
remain at Nos. 90, 93, 95 and 96. They seem to
have been of a uniform pattern, rising from basement to garret and having closed moulded strings,
stout turned balusters, broad moulded handrails,
turned pendants and thick, square newels with ball
finials or, in No. 95, flat moulded caps.
Other internal fittings have survived only at
Nos. 90 and 95, and of these No. 95 is perhaps the
more characteristic. The entrance passage walls
are lined with plain, rebated panelling finished
with a moulded dado rail and a box-cornice, and
the staircase compartment is entered through an
arch formed by a pair of square, panelled Doric
half-columns from which springs a round arch
with a moulded archivolt and a plain keyblock.
The east wall has unfortunately been moved
slightly to the west, with the result that the upper
panels on this side have disappeared and the arch is
partly concealed. There is also a box-cornice in
the first-floor front room. At No. 90 (fig. 48) the
woodwork is of a superior quality and here the
entrance passage is lined on the east side with
raised-and-fielded panels in bolection-moulded
framing, the stiles being developed into panelled
pilasters. The arched screen has spandrels carved
with winged cherub heads, the keyblock bears a
grotesque head, and the arch is flanked by short
panelled pilasters carved with pendants of leaves
and fruit. Similar panelling remains in the groundfloor rooms, though in a rather fragmentary state
since the two rooms have been made into one, and
there are also box-cornices in the front room on
the first floor and in both rooms on the second
floor. The later work is of the plainest early
nineteenth-century type, except for the first-floor
front room of No. 93 which has a mid eighteenthcentury character, with a plaster modillion cornice
enriched with egg-and-dart moulding, and a
pedestal-dado having a rail carved with foliage.
The architraves of the windows are decorated
with a cable-moulding, and the shutters have
fielded panels in ovolo-moulded frames with
egg-and-dart enrichment.
The exterior of No. 89 is of some interest, its
stuccoed upper storeys having flat raised architraves to the windows, those in the third storey
having keystones, those in the second storey
having triple keystones and cornice-hoods on consoles, and there is a cornice at third-floor level. In
the ground storey is an early nineteenth-century
shop-front, its window divided into eight large
panes by thick glazing-bars and its wooden fascia
finished with a pair of carved bracket-stops and a
modillion cornice, over which is a royal coat of
arms. The interior fittings of the shop are
modelled on an original show-case acquired from
the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Figure 48:
No. 90 Jermyn Street, plan and details
No. 88 also has a back wall of late seventeenthcentury character but its front has been entirely
rebuilt in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth
centuries. It has only two widely spaced windows
to each storey with a stucco cornice at third-floor
level, and the exposed brickwork appears to consist entirely of headers. A modern shop-front now
occupies the ground storey, but a photograph of
1907 in the London County Council's collection
shows that it was then covered with stucco and
rusticated with horizontal channelling, a raised
bandcourse marking the first-floor level. A plain
iron railing guarded the basement area and before
each of the second-storey windows, which have
now been shortened, was a bowed iron balcony
with a delicately patterned railing.
No. 94, while preserving the scale of the
original house, appears to be a complete rebuilding
of early nineteenth-century date.
No. 97, a corner house, is remarkable only for
its late Victorian shop-front where the windows
and doorways are framed with splayed unbroken
architraves, enriched with a bold egg-and-dart
moulding, in a series of elliptically arched openings. These form an arcade with five wide bays to
Jermyn Street, one on the corner, and three narrow bays to Duke of York Street. The stone or
cement face of this arcade is now painted a deep
chocolate-brown, giving great prominence to the
tall inset panels of polychrome tiles that decorate
the piers. The front is finished with a dentilled
cornice, partly overlaid by Baroque cartouches
centred above the piers.
Nos. 98–99 have the best preserved exterior
among the original houses, although early nineteenth-century alterations and the insertion of
modern shop-fronts have combined to spoil
their appearance (Plate 203d). Horwood and
the Ordnance Survey maps show the building
as two houses, with fronts to Jermyn Street,
and it appears to have been numbered as two
separate houses. However, the structural evidence points to its having been erected as a
single building. It contains a basement, three
storeys and a garret with fronts to Jermyn Street
and Duke of York Street of four and three windows respectively. The present red-tiled mansard
roof is entirely modern. Both fronts have raised
bandcourses immediately above the heads of the
windows but the Jermyn Street front has been
stuccoed and its windows altered. Towards Duke
of York Street the dull-red brickwork is still
exposed and the windows are segmental-headed,
all of them containing box-frames except for the
northern window in each storey, which is blind,
and the southern window of the second storey,
which has a projecting bay window of wood. The
doorway, in the ground storey of this front, has a
moulded architrave and triangular pediment of
stucco.
The plan is L-shaped with four rooms to each
floor, the two rooms in the longer western side
being separated by a staircase compartment. Of
the fittings only the staircase is of any interest and
this is mostly concealed by boarding. It is of the
dog-leg type with closed moulded strings, rather
thin turned balusters, a moulded handrail and
square newels with rounded tops, the bottom
newel being more elaborate with a cluster of
balusters around it and the handrail twisting over
them.
Nos. 104 and 105 Jermyn Street
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals was founded in 1824 by the Rev. Arthur
Broome, Rector of St. Mary's, Bromley St.
Leonard (now Bromley-by-Bow). Among those
present at the inaugural meeting in Old Slaughter's
Coffee House, St. Martin's Lane, (fn. d) was the Irish
member of Parliament, Richard Martin, who in
1822 had sponsored the first Act for the protection
of horses and cattle. The founding members of
the new society also included William Wilberforce
and Thomas Fowell Buxton, who took the chair
at the first meeting.
The society was especially interested in the
plight of draught horses, the conditions in
slaughterhouses, and the abolition of bull-baiting
and cock-fighting. During its early years it found
little sympathy or support among the general
public, and there were serious financial difficulties.
Only the hard work and generosity of such men as
Richard Martin and Lewis Gompertz saved it
from extinction.
In 1835 the society (assisted by Joseph Pease)
sponsored an Act which extended protection to a
much wider range of animals. In the same year
Princess Victoria became a patron of the society,
and in 1840 she granted it permission to use the
prefix 'Royal'.
The first office of the society was at No. 190
Regent Street. In 1839 the headquarters were at
No. 3 Exeter Hall, Strand, and subsequently at
No. 12 Pall Mall. (ref. 84)
In 1869 Miss (later Baroness) Burdett-Coutts
laid the foundation stone of the present headquarters building at No. 105 Jermyn Street. This
freehold site had been presented to the society by
George Wood, one of the trustees, who had purchased it in the previous year. The new building
was completed in 1870. (ref. 85) The architects were
Messrs. Pain and Clark, surveyors, of Buckingham Street, Strand. (ref. 84)
In 1902 the society purchased the freehold of
No. 104 Jermyn Street, (ref. 86) as an extension to its
premises. The house was demolished and rebuilt
in the following year, continuing the existing lines
of No. 105 on its first and second floors. Above
this, a new third floor, the full width of both
buildings, replaced Messrs. Pain and Clark's
heavy cornice. The ground-floor colonnade was
extended across both fronts and the columns and
piers rearranged. The architect in charge of the
work was F. W. Roper of Adam Street, Adelphi. (ref. 87)
The work carried out in 1903 was in accord
with the style of the building erected in 1869–70,
although the wider frontage of No. 104 resulted in
a lack of symmetry in the composition of the front
elevation. The four storeys are stone-fronted,
with a rusticated ground-storey face of black
granite set off by Corinthian columns with shafts
of red granite supporting a stone entablature. Two
columns flank the doorway, on the east, which has
above its entablature a segmental pediment containing a heavily festooned cartouche. At either
side of the doorway is a small recessed window,
and on the west is another group of three windows
recessed behind a screen of two columns. The
upper storeys are plainer, with raised quoins, and
in the second and third storeys are two wide
windows, one with two lights on the east, and the
other with three lights on the west. Pilasters
divide the lights, and support entablatures, the
second-storey windows being the more elaborately
dressed, having Corinthian pilasters, modillion
cornices and, at sill level, a continuous guilloche
band. In the fourth storey six small windows are
grouped centrally, and above them, supported at
either end by a console, is a projecting parapet
with a line of dentils beneath it.
No. 106 Jermyn Street
No. 106 Jermyn Street was rebuilt in 1906–7
from the designs of Messrs. Treadwell and Martin
of Charing Cross Road. The builders were
Messrs. F. and H. F. Higgs of Herne Hill. The
new building was designed as a block of offices with
a shop on the ground floor. (ref. 88)
The narrow stone front is simply designed with
a wide, four-storeyed bay window projecting out
over the ground storey, and its interest lies in the
detailing, which is in an 'Art Nouveau' version of
the Jacobean style. The shop-front and the fascia
are framed by a moulded architrave which is
stopped close to the ground in medieval fashion
and continued across the foot of the bay window
above, at either side of which the line is broken to
form a round-arched frame for a foliated cartouche. The bay is flanked by two long panels
similarly arched for a cartouche, and there are
thin mullions and transoms to the windows, beneath which, in the third and fourth storeys, are
carved bands of foliage. The heavy moulded cornice is arched in the centre to correspond with the
round arch of the window below, and above it
rises a tall conical roof crowned with a ball-finial.
No. 112 Jermyn Street
Nos. 111a and 112 Jermyn Street and Nos. 7
and 8 Wells (now Babmaes) Street, then occupied
by Standen and Co., were rebuilt as a single block
(No. 112 Jermyn Street) in 1900–1 for Edward
Standen Morphew. The new building was designed as a shop (subdivided in 1954–5) and a
woollen warehouse for Standen and Co., with a
single main entrance in Jermyn Street. (ref. 89) E. S.
Morphew's brother, Reginald Morphew, was the
architect, (ref. 90) and the builder was John Greenwood
of Arthur Street. (ref. 89) The Crown surveyor, Arthur
Green, described Morphew's design as 'somewhat
different to what had been generally adopted on
the Crown estate' (Plate 274b). (ref. 91)
Notwithstanding some 'Art Nouveau' details,
this building is strongly reminiscent of an early
Florentine palace, such as the Davanzati, with its
great blocks of rugged masonry in the ground
storey and the pseudo-loggia below the shadowy
crowning cornice. Five-storeyed fronts face on to
Jermyn Street and Babmaes Street and linking
them is a five-sided angle turret, crowned by an
octagonal belvedere with an ogee cupola. The
Jermyn Street front contains two wide, segmental
arches in the rusticated ground storey, and a pair
of three-light mullioned windows in each of the
three storeys above, those of the fourth storey
having moulded segmental-arched heads. The
fifth storey is lit by a series of small windows with
round arches rising from Ionic columns resting on
consoles, having the effect of a loggia. The turret
has windows only in the second, fifth and sixth
storeys, and in the Babmaes Street front the threelight windows in the upper face are set well to the
south, giving the building an appearance of massive
simplicity when viewed from the north-west.