CHAPTER XIV
Duke Street
Duke Street first appears in the ratebooks
of the parish of St. Martin in the Fields in
1673. Like York Street (now Duke of
York Street) it was probably named in honour of
James, Duke of York, later James II.
All of the ground on the west side of Duke
Street formed part of the land leased in 1661 by
Henrietta Maria's trustees to the Earl of St.
Albans's trustees for thirty years; subsequent
grants extended this term to 1740. The freehold
of the whole of this side of the street still belongs
to the Crown. The ground on the east side of the
street from King Street to a point four hundred
feet north (i.e. to the north side of Mason's Yard)
formed part of the land granted freehold by
Charles II to the Earl's trustees in 1665. The
remainder of the ground on the east side formed
part of the land leased to the Earl's trustees in the
same way as that on the west side, but in 1830 the
freehold of this and adjoining property in Jermyn
Street and Piccadilly was granted to the Governors
of Bethlem Hospital in exchange for property
owned by the hospital at Charing Cross where the
Government wished to make improvements. (ref. 1)
In 1671 the Earl of St. Albans's trustees
granted four leases, each for forty-five years, of
land fronting Duke Street. Between 1672 and
1674 they granted eight more similar leases. (ref. 2) The
lessees included Edward Stanton, (ref. 3) carpenter, (ref. 4) who
was probably a member of the family of masons and
sculptors, several of whom were prominent in the
seventeenth century; (ref. 5) Henry Murrell, (ref. 6) woodmonger; (ref. 7) and Francis Norris, bricklayer (evidently a sub-lessee). (ref. 8) The ratebooks of the parish
of St. Martin for 1673 and 1675 record respectively 12 and 20 names in Duke Street, and that of
1686 for the newly formed parish of St. James,
37 names. Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1681–2
and Blome's map of 1689 (Plates 2, 3) show that
the building of houses along both sides of the street
had been completed. The backs of some old
houses, now demolished, are shown in fig. 54.
In 1720 John Strype described Duke Street as
containing 'several well built Houses, which seem
to be better inhabited than Berry-street, or Riderstreet. On the West Side are two small Courts;
the one called Feather Court, and the other Gray's
Court; (fn. a) opposite to this Court is a very large
Yard [now Mason's Yard] for Coaches and
Stabling, with some Houses; of which one is very
good, with a handsome Garden to it, in which
lately dwelt the Duke of Shrewsbury. This Yard
is called St. Alban's Mews, and hath two Passages
into Duke-street; of which one is for Coaches and
Carts, and hath another Passage into Blackmorestreet [now Ormond Yard], . . . More towards
King's-street is a pretty neat Court, called Prince's
Court, with a Freestone Pavement neatly kept,
and not meanly inhabited: it hath a Door with
open Iron Bars half way, to shut up a-Nights for
the Security of the Inhabitants.' (ref. 10) The reason for
this superior character of Duke Street was probably
that, as already mentioned, much of the ground on
the east side of the street formed part of the freehold granted by the Crown to the Earl of St.
Albans's trustees in 1665, and a more substantial class of house could therefore be erected than
on the relatively short leasehold terms prevailing
in Bury Street and Ryder Street. The ratebooks
show several houses with high assessments on the
east side of the street and backing on to the houses
on the west side of St. James's Square; until the
beginning of the nineteenth century their inhabitants were often people of title. Charles
Talbot, twelfth Earl and only Duke of Shrewsbury, and one of the leaders of the Revolution of
1688, whom Strype mentions as having a house in
St. Albans Mews (now Mason's Yard), is listed in
the ratebooks as the occupant of a house on the
east side of Duke Street to the south of the mews,
from 1686 to 1693, but the garden of the house
may have extended as far north as the mews.
In 1738 doubts arose about the ownership of a
number of houses on the east side of Duke Street.
The points at issue involved a number of the
proprietors of houses in St. James's Square, and the
matter is discussed on page 59.
In 1772 Edward Gibbon inspected a house in
Duke Street on behalf of a friend. 'Yesterday
morning . . . I went to see a House for you in
Duke Street to be lett for any term or in any manner. The pro and Con are dispatched in a few
words—Vile street good quarter—An excellent
house spacious and convenient but a little old
fashioned.—The price ten Guineas a week.' (ref. 11)
Figure 54:
Duke Street, backs of houses on west side. Drawn from a photograph of 1880 in the Crown Estate Office
A list of distinguished residents and lodgers in
Duke Street is contained in the Appendix.
Nos. 2–3 Duke Street and No. 1 King Street
Nos. 2–3 Duke Street (Plate 273a) and No. 1
King Street were built between 1910 and 1912 on
an awkward L-shaped site formerly occupied by a
yard, stables and coach-houses. (ref. 12) The architects
were E. Vincent Harris and Thomas A. Moodie
of New Square, Lincoln's Inn, and the builders
were Messrs. Patman and Fotheringham of
Theobalds Road. The whole of the ground floor,
and part of the first floor were originally designed
as galleries for an art dealer. The building appears
subsequently to have been used as shops and offices,
and on the lower floors communication was provided between the two arms. (ref. 13) These were permanently separated in 1954.
In 1957–8 No. 1 King Street was extensively
altered to the designs of Messrs. Gotch and Partners of City Road. This work included the redesigning of the façade, which had formerly
matched with that of Nos. 2–3 Duke Street.
The front of Nos. 2–3 Duke Street is a striking
composition in the late Palladian manner, reflecting the influence of Sir Robert Taylor's work,
especially the attributed front of No. 3 The
Terrace, Richmond. The ground storey is of
Portland stone, laid in regular chamfer-jointed
courses and containing three wide openings with
round arches rising from plain imposts. The fine
red brick face of the two upper storeys is underlined by a stone pedestal, broken by the projecting
balconies of the three tabernacle-framed windows
in the principal storey. Each balcony has a
panelled soffit resting on scrolled trusses, and its
front has an open balustrade between solid
pedestals from which rise free-standing Corinthian
plain-shafted columns, standing in front of antae
and supporting a triangular-pedimented entablature. By contrast, the third-storey windows are
small and square, and simply recessed with plain
margins in the brick face. Finishing the front is a
fine modillioned cornice, stopped at each end by a
massive console-bracket, and above is a balustrade
divided into three bays by projecting pedestals.
No. 6 Duke Street
No. 6 Duke Street was built in 1922 by the
Clerical, Medical and General Life Assurance
Society, whose headquarters at No. 15 St. James's
Square adjoined the property to the east. The
architect was W. Curtis Green of Pickering Place,
St. James's Street. The ground floor was divided
into four shops with an entrance lobby in the
southernmost bay and a picture gallery behind;
the upper floors were fitted up as offices during the
course of 1923. In 1927 the Assurance Society
converted the back portion of the building (which
they had formerly used in conjunction with No.
15 St. James's Square) into offices for letting.
This work was carried out by W. Curtis Green
and Partners. (ref. 14)
The classical front, which is of Portland stone,
shows a curious disparity between the scale of its
fenestration and that of its ornamental parts,
arising perhaps from a well-meant desire to give
this building some affinity with Nos. 2 and 3. The
front of No. 6, however, embraces four storeys as
against the three of Nos. 2 and 3, and each floor
has five windows instead of three, although both
fronts have much the same overall height and
width. Here, the ground storey is divided into
five equal bays by channel-jointed Doric piers
with enriched capitals, supporting a simple entablature. The five windows in the second storey
are united with those in the third storey by their
framing, the second and fourth by plain bandarchitraves, and the first, third and fifth by bandarchitraves flanked by panelled pilaster-strips with
large consoles supporting boldly projecting triangular pediments (an obvious echo of the three
tabernacle windows at Nos. 2 and 3). The
square windows in the fourth storey are uniformly
framed with band-architraves, and an enriched
dentilled cornice, of similar girth to that of Nos. 2
and 3, completes the front.
Nos. 11–13 And 15–17 (consec.) Duke Street
All these houses are illustrated on Plate 203c.
No. 16, the Chequers, has been a public house
since at least 1732, when Henry Mason, the then
occupant, was granted a victualler's licence for an
unnamed tavern there. (ref. 15) The ratebooks show
that he had lived there since 1717. In 1740 he
was succeeded as occupant by Robert Morgoridge, (ref. 16) and in 1744 William Morgridge was
granted a victualler's licence for the Mason's Arms
in Duke Street. (ref. 17) By 1751 the name of the tavern
had been changed to the Chequers. (ref. 18)
Thomas Moore, the poet, lodged at No. 15 in
1833. (ref. 19)
Nos. 11–13 Duke Street have been much
altered, but their carcases probably date from the
early eighteenth century at least. No. 11 has
above its nondescript shop-front a face of plumcoloured brick, perhaps a mid eighteenth-century
refronting, two storeys high and two windows
wide. The modern sashes are set in plain openings
with slightly cambered arches of gauged brick, and
a trellis-panelled iron balcony projects above the
shop-front. The four-storeyed fronts of Nos. 12
and 13 are respectively two and four windows
wide. Despite the facing of painted stucco,
jointed to imitate stone, and the classical architraves of the windows, the fenestration pattern and
the flat bandcourses between the storeys of No. 13
point to an early building date. No. 12 has a
Gothic balcony above the shop-front, and the
south part of No. 13 is open at the ground storey
to give access to Mason's Yard.
Nos. 15–17 are probably older than their fronts
would suggest. No. 15 is four storeys high and
three windows wide, and above the shop-front it is
faced with stucco, detailed in the 'Grecian' taste.
The windows have moulded architraves, eared in
the second storey, and resting on sills supported by
guttae in the third storey, and the attic is underlined by a Doric cornice. Behind the parapet rises
the vertical face of a modern garret. Nos. 16 and
17 are three-storeyed houses with garrets, and
above the shop-front each house has a plain brick
face, two windows wide. The ground storey of the
Chequers has an early Victorian front of three
bays—a window between two doors—with partly
fluted pilasters supporting a simple entablature.
Nos. 18–20 (consec.) Duke Street
Around 1674 William Younge erected two
houses in Duke Street. (ref. 20) In 1809 one of these,
No. 20, was part of Miller's Hotel, and was said
to require rebuilding. (ref. 21) Robert Miller obtained a
new lease in 1816, and covenanted to rebuild the
house at a cost of £1200 by October 1834. (ref. 22)
The other house built by Younge was replaced
by the present Nos. 18 and 19, presumably in
1835, when the Governors of Bethlem Hospital
leased the two new houses separately to
Spicer Crowe of George Street, Euston Square,
builder. (ref. 23)
Nos. 18 and 19 (Plate 203c) are a uniform pair,
each having a simple and well-designed front of
late Georgian character, four storeys high, with a
stucco-faced ground storey and an upper face of
yellow brick. There were originally three openings of similar form in the ground storey of each
house—a door and two windows, framed by
channel-jointed piers and flat arches with vermiculated keyblocks. Each upper storey has two
windows, the barred sashes being recessed in plain
openings with flat arches of gauged brickwork.
There is a dentilled cornice of stucco below the
fourth, or attic storey, and the fronts are finished
with a moulded parapet of stucco.
No. 20 (Plate 203c) is a double-fronted house
and the four-storeyed front is larger in scale than
that of Nos. 18–19, although similar in style and
materials. In the ground storey are two modern
shop windows, set one on each side of the plain
doorway in the painted stucco face, which is
coursed with chamfered joints and finished with a
flat profiled cornice. The three upper storeys are
faced with yellow brick, each storey having three
widely spaced windows, equal in width but of a
height proportionate to the storey. The lowest
are dressed with moulded architraves and the
middle window is accented with a triangular pediment on consoles, but the openings in the upper
two storeys are plain, with flat arches of gauged
brickwork. A simply moulded cornice completes
the front.
Nos. 34–36 (consec.) Duke Street
Nos. 34, 35 and 36 Duke Street were erected
in 1859–60 by Henry Faulkner, a builder, who
had previously rebuilt his own premises at No. 51
Jermyn Street. All three houses appear to have
been used as separate private hotels until Nos. 35
and 36 were joined by an opening in their party
wall in 1875. (ref. 24)
In 1908 Faulkner's legatees converted the
ground floors of Nos. 35 and 36 into shops,
according to the designs of T. C. Trafford and
Son of Jermyn Street. No. 34 was similarly
altered in 1912–13 by P. R. Berry of Ebury
Street. The upper floors were gradually changed
from residential to office use. (fn. 24)
All three houses were considerably damaged by
enemy action during the war of 1939–45. They
were reinstated in 1949–52.
The houses are contained in a five-storeyed
block built of grey brick liberally adorned with
cement. The upper storeys have nine windows
grouped in threes, each group consisting of a wide
window flanked by two narrower ones and the
middle group forming part of a slightly projecting
feature. Moulded architraves frame all the windows, and in the second and third storeys each
group is set against a background of cement, the
wide centre windows in the third storey being
further elaborated with triangular pediments and
balustraded balconies finished with ball-finials.
A modillion cornice marks the fourth-floor level,
and there is a small top cornice and a parapet,
both reconstructed recently. Nothing remains of
the original ground storey except a continuous
entablature at first-floor level and two Doric
porches, the north porch, which no doubt served
two houses, having three columns.
Nos. 38–42 (consec.) Duke Street and
Nos. 2–10 (even) Ryder Street
Nos. 2–10 were formerly Nos. 1–5 (odd) Ryder Street
Ten old houses at Nos. 38–42 (consec.) Duke
Street and Nos. 1–5 (odd) Ryder Street were demolished in the summer of 1880 by the Office of
Woods and Forests, (fn. 25) and in March 1881 a building agreement was signed with Barrow Emanuel,
of the architectural firm of Davis and Emanuel,
for the redevelopment of part of this site. Three
months later Emanuel assigned his agreement to
Frederick Fearon, who subsequently acquired the
remainder of the site for the erection of a single
block of residential chambers. (fn. 26) Building work
started in the spring of 1882, and was completed
in the latter part of 1883. Fearon's architects were
Messrs. Jameson and Wallis of Great Russell
Street, Bloomsbury. (fn. 27) The builders were Messrs.
W. and C. Macgregor of London and Edinburgh.
On the ground floor there was a range of shops,
with a private entrance from Ryder Street to the
back premises of the Turkish baths in Jermyn
Street. The first and second floors were divided
into two-room flats, with single residential chambers on the third and fourth floors. The attic and
basement were reserved for kitchens and servants'
accommodation. (fn. 28)
The building was badly damaged by enemy
action in October 1940 and in April 1941. (fn. 27) The
damaged portions were subsequently put into temporary repair, but only the ground-floor shops and
the flats on the first floor were reinstated. The
second, third and fourth floors were occupied by
the Ministry of Works until 1951. (fn. 29) Subsequently this part of the building has remained
empty.
This is one of the better late nineteenth-century
buildings in the area, a neo-Palladian composition
with Flemish Baroque detailing, carried out in
stone or cement, but now heavily painted (Plate
275c). The two extensive fronts are generally
uniform though of different length, and they meet
in a narrow splayed corner. Strong horizontal
emphasis is provided by the balustraded pedestal
above the rusticated and fluted Ionic pilasters of
the ground storey, and by the bracketed entablature above the third storey, which is supported by
giant Composite pilasters with partly fluted shafts.
The secondary entablature of the attic storey is
sustained by short pilasters of Doric character,
with panelled shafts. Variety is given to the bay
spacing on both fronts, but more successfully in
Duke Street where two wide bays alternate with
single narrow bays throughout its ten-bay length.
The ground-storey shop-fronts are framed by
semi-elliptical arches with rusticated piers and
archivolts, and the round-arched doorways in the
narrow bays are similarly treated. In the wide bays
between the giant Composite pilasters are shallow
canted bay windows of two storeys, treated in the
early Norman Shaw manner with casements
below the transoms and lunettes above the middle
lights. The attic-storey windows are divided by
mullions and transoms, and at the north end of the
Duke Street front are two survivors from the
series of pedimented dormers that originally enlivened the skyline.