Bateman Street
Until 1884 this street was called Queen Street.
It bore that name by 1682 when it formed the
southern boundary of the Monmouth House site. (ref. 82)
Ogilby and Morgan's map of that year errs,
however, in showing the north and south sides of
the street equally built upon. The north side
between Dean Street and Frith Street was occupied
only by the return frontages of those streets
(chiefly of Frith Street) until the 1730's, and between Frith Street and Greek Street by the
return frontages of those streets and the back
premises of Monmouth House until the latter were
replaced by Bateman's Buildings in 1774–5.
The street is not named in the ratebooks for
1683–5 but appears in the next available book,
that for 1691, with nine ratepayers occupying the
whole of the southern side. In 1720 Strype
described the street as 'a Place not very considerable, having on the North Side dead Walls,
which generally are dirty and ill kept'. (ref. 5)
In c. 1734 the south side between Dean
Street and Frith Street was rebuilt, under sixtyfive-year Portland leases: two of the lessees
were Thomas Richmond, carpenter (described as
wax-chandler), and William Bignell, glazier. (ref. 83)
Between Frith Street and Greek Street, the interesting house recently demolished at No. 3 was also
rebuilt, under a building lease granted to the
occupant (see below). On the north side, houses
on the sites of Nos. 13–17 (consec.) were built
on the back premises of two houses in Frith
Street, under a sixty-five-year Portland lease
granted in 1731 to John Wilkins of St. George's,
Hanover Square, paviour. He made agreements
for building the houses with three other building
tradesmen, Thomas Gingell, joiner, Thomas
Carter, carver (both of St. George's, Hanover
Square), and George Gillingham of St. James's,
bricklayer, to whom, severally, he granted subleases of the sites in 1733. (ref. 84)
In the 1760's the back buildings of Monmouth
House on the north side of the street included a
chapel, said to have been used for a time by a
congregation of French Protestants (see page 112).
The street frontage on this part of the north
side was completed in 1774–5 when four
houses were built facing Queen Street as part of
the development of Bateman's Buildings on the
Monmouth House site (see pages 112–13).
John Milbourn, portrait painter, was lodging
in the street (probably at the former No. 16) in
1774, and Joseph Gandy, the architect, probably
at the former No. 8 in 1802–3. (ref. 36)
A public house called the Dog and Duck has
existed at No. 18 since 1734, and a Carlisle Arms
at No. 2 since at least 1752. (ref. 85)
No. 3 Bateman Street
Demolished
This house (figs. 37–9) was probably built in
1734. A smaller house on the site had been occupied
since c. 1704–7 by a William Norton. (ref. 3) It was
perhaps the same William Norton, gentleman,
who in April 1734 was granted a new sixty-fiveyear Portland lease from Michaelmas of that year
at a peppercorn rent for the first year of the term. (ref. 86)
By the end of the year he was in occupation of
the new or rebuilt house, which he continued to
occupy until his death in 1754. (ref. 3) In his will he
expressed the wish that other parts of his estate
should be sold rather than his dwelling house here,
which he left to his brother in the unfulfilled
hope that it would 'continue in the name of
Norton . . . for ever'. (ref. 87)
The succeeding occupant, until 1766, was a
Dr. Jos. Tenaglio Von Grieffenberg, and a later
occupant, from 1771 to 1776, was a Pio Sienesi. (ref. 3)
Architectural Description
The dignified front of this house, with its
unusual Mannerist detail, was latterly the only
feature of any note remaining in Bateman Street
and perhaps it always had been so. Originally the
house looked on to the garden of Monmouth
House, but it was not placed on the same axis
and there seems to have been no intention to
relate it to the earlier building.
At the time of its demolition in 1963 it comprised a basement and four storeys, having a front
three windows wide (fig. 38). This was of purplered brick with red brick quoins, except for the
fourth storey, which was a later addition in yellow
brick, probably replacing an original roof-garret.
In the first three storeys the windows had segmental arches of gauged brick with tall triple
keyblocks having moulded caps, and within the
openings were box-frames containing doublehung sashes, although these were probably
nineteenth-century replacements. The doorway
was flanked by attached Doric columns of wood,
the bases of which had been boxed in, doubtless
because they had rotted, although the stone
plinths were still visible. A horizontal mark on
the brickwork showed the height of the missing
entablature. The door itself was six-panelled
and deeply recessed within panelled reveals, all
the panels being raised-and-fielded with ovolomoulded frames.
Later alterations had merely served to emphasize the decline of the building's status from
the nineteenth century onwards. The lower
part of the ground storey had been rendered with
cement and the upper part painted, while the
gauged arches in the three lower storeys had been
painted to resemble stone. The added fourth
storey had been built with a single wide window
containing four pairs of sashes, doubtless reflecting
the industrial uses to which the house had sunk.
Along its west side there had once been a narrow
passage, but this had been enclosed and an additional closet to the first and second floors built
over it.
Figure 37:
No. 3 Bateman Street, plans
The first two storeys of the back wall were of
purple-red brick with segmental-headed windows
containing box-frames, but the third and fourth
storeys had been added or rebuilt in yellow brick
at a later date.
The interior was planned on standard lines
with a single front and back room to each floor,
the dog-legged staircase being placed to one side
of the back room, behind which projected a small
closet. The finishings were relatively simple and
there was nothing to compare with the unusual
keyblocks employed on the exterior. The entrance hall and the rooms and staircase compartment on the first three floors were all fully
panelled, with shutters and six-panelled doors to
match. On the ground and first floors, apart from
the closets, the panelling was ovolo-moulded with
moulded dado-rails and box-cornices, except that
the two back rooms had only the smaller type of
cornice. The front room on the first floor was a
little more grand, having raised-and-fielded
panelling and a dentilled cornice; the panel over
the chimneypiece was plain and flush, presumably
because it had been intended to carry a picture. In
the two front rooms the original stone chimneypieces had survived, the panelled jambs having
moulded imposts and the shaped, panelled lintels
having fluted keystones. Flanking the chimneybreast in the ground-floor front room were two
cupboards, probably installed at a slightly later date
than the panelling. These were round-headed
with moulded architraves extending down to the
floor, having fluted keyblocks at the head of the
arch. The lower part of the cupboards had panelled doors, but in the upper part these had been
replaced in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth
century by glazed doors with glazing-bars
forming pointed Gothick arches. At the end of the
entrance hall, flanking the opening to the staircase compartment, were two fluted Doric pilasters
supporting a round arch, this having a panelled
soffit and a moulded archivolt finished with a
plain keyblock. The third-floor rooms, and the
closets on the two floors below, had plain sunk
panelling elaborated only with a slightly moulded
dado-rail and a small moulded cornice. The
front and back rooms on the third floor had flat
stone chimneypieces with shaped lintels and small
mouldings on the inner and outer edges. The
staircase, running from the basement to the third
floor, was a wooden one of the plainest design,
having dog-legged flights with moulded closed
strings, turned balusters and column-newels, the
latter with big square heads; there were no half-space landings, but only winders at the turn of the
stairs.
Figure 38:
No. 3 Bateman Street, elevation
Figure 39:
No. 3 Bateman Street, section