No. 21 Soho Square
This site was first occupied by two houses which
in 1745 were said to have been erected by John
Dunton under two sub-leases granted to him in
February 1678/9 by Richard Frith and William
Pym. (ref. 121) Shortly afterwards the two houses
appear to have been converted into one, and the
ratebooks suggest that the first occupant, in 1685,
was 'Esquire Graham', probably Colonel James
Graham, M.P., of Levens Hall, Cumberland.
By 1691 the occupant was Graham's elder
brother, Richard Graham, Viscount Preston, a
Jacobite. In 1685 he had returned to London
after serving as ambassador in Paris and was probably attracted to Soho Square and to this particular
house by the presence of his brother-in-law, the
second Earl of Carlisle, who already occupied the
neighbouring mansion to the south. In 1691
Viscount Preston was condemned for high treason,
but was pardoned, and the ratebooks show that in
1692 the house was occupied by Lady Preston's
nephew, Charles, Lord Morpeth (later third Earl
of Carlisle), until 1693, when he moved to
Carlisle House in Soho Square after the death of
his father, the second Earl. Lady Grace Pierrepont, daughter of Henry Pierrepont, Marquess of
Dorchester, was the next occupant and lived in
the house until at least 1697. (ref. 122) She died at
Isleworth in 1703, but was commemorated by a
memorial (now destroyed) in St. Anne's
Church. (ref. 123)
From 1730 to 1734 the house was occupied
by Sir Rowland Winn, the fourth baronet, of
Nostell Priory, Yorkshire. (ref. 33) It was during this
time that George Vertue saw at No. 21 a 'large
Family picture of Sir Thomas More' (in 1954
still at Nostell and attributed to Holbein), which
Lady Winn had inherited as a descendant of
Margaret Roper, More's daughter. (ref. 124) Later
inhabitants include Sir William Clayton, first
baronet, M.P., 1735–44, and William Harvey,
Essex landowner and M.P., 1751–63. (ref. 33)
From 1772 to 1775 the house was the Spanish
embassy (which had earlier occupied No. 7), and
from 1778 to 1801 it was used as an hotel. (ref. 33)
This hotel was kept by Thomas Hooper and was
said to have become 'notorious in the annals of
Fashion' as 'the infamous White House'. (ref. 125)
From the frequent but oblique references to this
establishment by later topographical writers, it is
likely that the house was used as a brothel. The
reception rooms of the house at this time were
garishly decorated; three were known from their
fittings as the 'Gold', 'Silver' and 'Bronze' rooms,
the walls being all inlaid with mirrored panels;
there was also the 'Painted Chamber', the
'Groto', the 'Coal Hole' and the 'Skeleton Room'
where, for the delectation of the patrons, a skeleton could be made to step out of a closet with the
aid of machinery. (ref. 119)
There is no indication that the house erected
in the late 1670's was much changed until 1838–1840, when it was altered or rebuilt for Edmund
Crosse and Thomas Blackwell. They first appear
as ratepayers for this house in 1840, and their
firm remained here until about 1925. The new
building (Plate 92a, fig. 5) has four main storeys
and the front to the square is four windows wide.
It is plainly built of a fine yellow stock brick with
a painted cornice below the third storey and a
smaller entablature and blocking above, screening
the slated mansard roof. The first-floor windows
to the square have a simple cast-iron balcony rail
divided where a central block formerly supported
the royal arms. Iron guards, of a similar pattern,
are provided for the second-floor windows. The
ground storey may always have had a shop front,
but the present treatment in Portland stone was
probably added in 1927–8 under the direction of
the architect, M. W. Matts. (ref. 126)