No. 78 Dean Street
For the building of No. 78 see the table on
page 250.
The most notable occupant of this not greatly
altered house (Plate 112c) was the actress Margaret (Peg) Woffington. Her removal to London
from Dublin in 1740 is said to have been made
under the protection of an admirer, a sprig of
Irish nobility probably named Theobald Taaffe,
from whom she was soon estranged. (ref. 195) The
literary authority for this tale seems dubious,
but it may nevertheless be true. In 1740 No. 78
was assessed for rates successively to a Mr. and
then Mrs. Taaffe. The former may well have
been the Theobald Taaffe who in 1742 had an
account at the bank now Drummond's, and was no
doubt a kinsman of the fourth and last Earl of
Carlingford, Theobald Taaffe (d. 1738), for a
note in the parish ratebook suggests that the rates
were actually paid by the late Earl's heir, Nicholas,
sixth Viscount Taaffe. Whichever members of
the family inhabited the house, they were succeeded as ratepayers at Michaelmas 1740 by
the Irish actress. She is named Mrs. Woffington
until 1745 and thereafter Margaret Woffington
until she ceased to pay rates here early in 1748.
It was during this period that Miss Woffington's association with David Garrick ran its
course: their cohabitation is, however, usually
placed in Southampton Street, Covent Garden, (ref. 197)
and it is therefore uncertain whether it was in
Dean Street that they entertained Samuel Johnson and Garrick grumbled at his paramour's
extravagance with the tea. (ref. 198) The supposed
ménage à trois with Charles Macklin is also
usually placed at the latter's house in Bow Street,
Covent Garden. (fn. a) From c. 1744 Miss Woffington had in addition a house at Teddington. (ref. 200)
She was succeeded as ratepayer for the years
1748–9 by Captain James Young, possibly the
naval officer who later became an admiral.
From 1770 to 1776 the occupant was Francis
Delaballe, described as a 'merchant'. (ref. 32) From
1781 to 1823 the house was occupied professionally by the successful surgeon, Jesse Foot (who
lectured here on venereal disease in 1790–1),
and, for a period, his nephew of the same
name. (ref. 201)
In 1833 the freehold was bought from the
Crown for £1,100 by William Wood, a solicitor,
of Richmond Buildings, founder of the firm of
W. J. Fraser and Son, which still occupies the
house. (ref. 202) In the years c. 1840–51 the house was
partly occupied by the Rev. Thomas Long,
rector of St. Patrick's from 1848, together with the
Rev. Mr. Darcy (1842–7) and the Rev. Thomas
Barge, later rector, in 1849–51. (ref. 203)
Architectural Description
This and the two houses northward, Nos. 79
and 80, which were built two or three years earlier
than the larger houses to the south (see table on
page 250), have their fronts set a little further
forward, probably adhering to the original building line of the street (Plate 112c). No. 78 is a
single-fronted house of modest dimensions and
conventional design. Its plan mirrors that of No.
79, so that they share chimney-stacks in the
party walls and have adjoining closet-wings at
the back. No. 78 is the less altered of the pair.
It has a front of three storeys, three windows
wide, built of variegated stock bricks dressed
with red rubbers, which are used for the jambs
and segmental arches of the window openings,
and for the moulded bandcourse at first-floor
level. The doorway, on the left of the two groundfloor windows, has a wooden doorcase consisting
of two Doric pilasters with fluted shafts, supporting a triglyphed entablature which, apart from
the crowning members of its cornice, is returned
and recessed above the doorway opening. The
windows have plain stone sills, plastered reveals,
and sashes with a single glazing-bar, probably
of mid-nineteenth-century date. The front is
carried up to form a plain parapet, finished with
a narrow stone coping, and in the slated mansard
roof are two segmental-headed dormers. The
cast-iron railing to the front area, and the partly
glazed door, appear to be mid-Victorian.
The entrance hall and staircase are on the
south side of the front and back rooms. The frontroom fireplace is centred in the north wall, the
chimney-breast having a wide face slightly projecting from narrow side faces. The backroom chimney-breast is splayed across the northwest angle, backing on to the splayed fireplace in
the closet. The hall was probably altered about
1800, by the surgeon, Jesse Foot, for it is now of
the same width as the staircase compartment, from
which it is separated by a screen composed of a
partly glazed door between side-lights, surmounted by a large semi-circular fanlight with
radiating glazing-bars. This screen, of about
1800, extends between the two Doric fluted pilasters that originally dressed the opening between
hall and staircase. The walls of the hall, the staircase, and the ground- and first-floor rooms are
wainscoted in deal, with plain panels in two
heights set in framing moulded with an ovolo
and an inside fillet. The six-panelled doors and
window shutters are similarly moulded, and while
some of the doorways have stepped architraves,
others have been refurbished with narrow architraves of Regency pattern. Generally, the most
salient mouldings have been removed from the
dado-rails, and no original chimneypieces have
survived. All the rooms have box-cornices, those
in the ground-floor back and first-floor front
being enriched with dentil courses. The closets
and upper rooms are lined with plain rebated
panelling.
The dog-legged staircase is typical of its date,
having cut strings extending from the ground
floor to the half-landing above the first floor,
the basement and upper flights having moulded
closed strings. The cut strings are ornamented
with carved bracket step-ends, and the railings
are composed of moulded handrails resting on
plain-shafted Doric column-newels, and squaresection balusters, two to each tread, turned with
slender Doric columns above urn-shaped bases.