North Side

No. 1

No. 1 as it now stands is in elevation a substantial simplification, following war damage, of the house rebuilt in 1908 (Plate 31a). The first house here, leased in May 1728, was modest and conventional. (ref. 4) Internal photographs taken shortly after the builder George Shaw had altered it for Lady Hotham in 1889 suggest a thoroughly Victorianized house, at least in the main rooms and stairs. (ref. 5)

In 1907 the Grosvenor Board allowed No. 1 to be rebuilt, probably in view of the recent reconstruction of its old eastern neighbours, Nos. 22 and 23 Grosvenor Square. From a list of architects submitted by the builder John Garlick, who had bought the lease, the Board chose Edmund Wimperis (not yet estate surveyor) and his partner J. R. Best. They produced a front elevation in stone, of Tudor character, with ornamental mullioned bays above the ground floor. The house was rapidly built in 1908 and soon occupied, though the upper parts of the front were varied from what was at first proposed. (ref. 6) In 1913 the architects W. H. Romaine-Walker and Company made significant internal changes for the first occupant, the American millionaire, C. T. Garland, for whom they also designed Moreton Hall in Warwickshire. (ref. 7)

Following severe bomb damage, the house was in 1955 converted into flats and almost wholly rebuilt with lower storey heights, to designs by Gordon Pringle on behalf of W. Turner Lord of Mount Street. (ref. 8)

Occupants include: Gen. Felix Buckley, 1802–12. Sir William Francis Eliott, 7th bt., 1823–8. Col. Henry Hely-Hutchinson, brother of 3rd Earl of Donoughmore, 1831–74: his da., Lady (Harriet) Hanmer, successively wife and wid. of Sir Wyndham Edward Hanmer, 4th bt., 1881–5, 1888–9. C. T. Garland, American millionaire, 1908–17. Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, K.C.B., O.M., engineer and scientist, 1918–31.

No. 2

No. 2, like its eastern neighbour, was rebuilt early in the twentieth century as a high-class speculation. It replaced a house of good size and quality with a thirty-foot frontage, first leased in 1730. (ref. 9) At the time of its demolition the staircase, probably still in its original front-compartment position, was described as 'very handsome', and the estate surveyor, Edmund Wimperis, recommended that it should be retained. (ref. 10)

Early in 1913 the contractors Trollope and Colls acquired the lease with a view to rebuilding, using Edmund Wimperis and W. B. Simpson as their architects. Because of the outbreak of war, work advanced slowly. A lease was granted only in 1915, but a buyer could not be found for the house until 1919. (ref. 11)

The new No. 2 (Plate 31a) must have made an interesting comparison with No. 1. Both houses were of stone and had central bays and similar storey heights, but No. 2 assumed a rich Beaux-Arts manner at odds with its mullion-windowed neighbour. It has swept sides to its bay, oeil de boeuf windows and a strong cornice and segmental pediment above the second floor.

Occupants include: Archibald Hutcheson, lawyer and economist, 1732–40. Dr. William Heberden the younger, physician to the king, 1815–20. William John Law, commissioner of insolvent court, 1831–5. Gen. Henry Wynyard, 1835–8. Robert Plumer Ward, novelist and politician, 1845–6. Col. (later maj.-gen.) Robert Henry Wynyard, 1847–50. Col. Sir John Burgoyne, 9th bt., 1850–2. 2nd Baron Templemore, 1876–87. Lady Cunard, wife of Sir Bache Cunard, 3rd bt., 1918.

No. 3

No. 3 is a narrow-fronted house of which little is known (Plate 31a). In carcase it is still the original building leased in 1730 to John Neale, carpenter, (ref. 12) but it has undergone much alteration. By the early nineteenth century the ground-floor plan was notable for the rather grand if uneconomic arrangement by which a central entrance led into a hall extending the full width of frontage with a curved stair on one side and one single large room behind: (ref. 13) possibly this betokens a mid eighteenth-century reconstruction. Eventually the house was conventionally replanned, with an entrance on the right and a plain stair; the most likely date for the change is 1854, when a storey was added by the builders R. Watts and Sons. (ref. 14) Perhaps the rustication on the ground floor was put on at this time too. In 1886 repairs were made and part of the mews building was separated off in exchange for a new lease, but the further storey then contemplated was not added. (ref. 15)

Occupants include: Col. Francis Byng, brother of Adm. Sir George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, 1732–3. William Praed, M.P., 1738–41. Mrs. Elizabeth Byng, 1743–86. Viscountess Strangford, wid. of 8th Viscount, 1882–7. Maj.-gen. Charles Vyvyan Cox, 1888–1903. Sidney Philip Phillips, physician, 1905–27.

No. 4

No. 4, with No. 5, makes a pair of substantial houses leased to David Audsley, plasterer, in 1730 (ref. 16) (Plates 31a, 55c). Both houses at first sported similar fronts of just over thirty feet in breadth, while within they had frontcompartment staircases, and at the back shared a private stable yard. (ref. 13) The main cornices continue to align, but the front of No. 4 has suffered the standard mid-Victorian treatment; a portico, balconies and window dressings were added in 1858, following works ordered by Thomas Cundy II as a condition for a new lease. (ref. 17)

Early in the twentieth century, large outlays were made on the interior. The first such spender was Mrs. Woolf Joel, who crossed the street from No. 44 in 1900. (ref. 18) Her successor, Francis M. Whitehouse of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, who lived here from 1904 to 1909, also made changes<architect, F. A. Hayes>. (ref. 19) Further works were undertaken during the occupation in 1926–9 of the fashionable decorator, the Marchese Malacrida, when several of the rooms were adorned with imported fragments of Continental carving, decorative painting and furniture to create an exotic ambience with a strong Italianate flavour. The principal staircase was also remodelled at that time in a more severe Italian taste with walls and plain balustrade simulating smooth ashlar masonry, while the ceiling was painted with trees simulating the underside of an arboreal bower (ref. 20) (Plate 53a). Much of this decoration was no doubt of a somewhat flimsy nature and no trace of it, nor of any earlier work, now survives. The interior was totally remodelled when the house was subdivided to form flats after the war of 1939–45.

Occupants include: Sir John Aubrey, 6th bt., 1806–26. Sir Thomas Trayton Fuller-Eliott-Drake, 1st bt., 1838–43. Robert George Cecil Fane, bankruptcy commissioner, 1847–50, 1856–66. Alfred Lyttelton, later Sec. of State for Colonies, 1886–8. Capt. Alwyn Greville, son of 4th Earl of Warwick, 1890–9. Mrs. Woolf Joel, 1900–2 (previously at No. 44). Maj-.gen. Sir John Ducane, K.C.B., Dep. Chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines, 1918–23. Marchese Malacrida, 1926–9. Sir Ralph St. George Claude Gore, 10th bt., 1930–41.

No. 5

No. 5 was, like No. 4, leased to David Audsley, plasterer, in 1730. (ref. 21) Though its front has been less altered than its neighbour's, it too has received a stuccoed ground storey, stucco surrounds to the windows, and a late-Georgian iron balcony at first-floor level (Plates 31a, 55c). Despite expenditure of £2,000 in 1875, the internal planning has not much changed. (ref. 22) Some of the rooms retain panelling has the main staircase (though curtailed and renewed) is in the old front-compartment position, and the back stair survives. There are some ornamental marble fireplaces of mid-Georgian character. The bay at the back is an addition of 1903, when the builder John Garlick took on the lease and made alterations. (ref. 23) The drawing-rooms and other features of the interior could be due either to Garlick or to Sir Edmund Vestey, for whom works were in progress in 1931. (ref. 24) As in the case of No. 4, the rear premises were separated off about a year before this.

Occupants include: Richard Powys, M.P., 1734–7. (Sir) Thomas George Skipworth, latterly 4th bt., 1776–81. Francis Burton, M.P., 1800–33. William Samuel Best, later 2nd Baron Wynford, 1834–41. Lady Cecily Jane Georgiana Fane, da. of 10th Earl of Westmorland, 1843–74. 3rd Marquess of Ormonde, 1877–80. Capt. Frederick William Ramsden and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Maud Ramsden, 1904–18. Sir Edmund Vestey, 1st bt., Chairman of Union Cold Storage Co., 1924–41.

No. 6

No. 6 consists now of a small but arresting block of flats of 1936, with an elevation and ironwork in a sub-modern idiom. It was erected by Prestige and Company to designs by W. E. Masters, (ref. 25) and superseded a house of special interest to which detailed attention must be given (Plates 55c, 56: see also Plate 17d, fig. 8a in vol. XXXIX).

The main rectangular plot here, with a frontage of thirty feet to Upper Brook Street and a depth of two hundred feet, was in September 1732 leased to Edward Shepherd with the consent of his brother John, who was much concerned in the development of Shepherd's Court (now Place). By then, Edward had built at least the carcase of a house, which he briefly inhabited before disposing of his interests in 1735 to John, second Baron (later Earl) Gower. (fn. a) To Gower were also assigned further adjoining plots, fronting Shepherd's Court to the west behind Nos. 7 and 8 Upper Brook Street and stretching right back to Lees Mews. This meant that for most of the depth of the site, Gower enjoyed an enlarged plot of nearly seventy feet in width. (ref. 26)

The main front elevation of this house as it appeared until 1935 was probably not radically different from that erected by Shepherd two centuries before. If this is so, it had a well-raised and rusticated ground storey with arched windows, and over the second floor displayed the unusual feature of a neat pediment (Plate 55c: see also fig. 8a in vol. XXXIX). As to materials, the front was said in 1772 to be of stone, but there is a suspicion that the ground storey may from the first have been of the hard stucco that Shepherd sometimes used on the lower parts of his houses. Of the interior, the same source of 1772 observes that 'a rich Fancy is displayed in the splendid variety of ornaments'. (ref. 27)

Lord Gower died in 1754, leaving a life-interest in the house to his wife. (ref. 28) Little is then known of it until 1772, when after a series of transactions (in one of which £9,450 changed hands) it was put up for auction and bought by William Weddell, M.P., of Newby Hall, Yorkshire. (ref. 29) Weddell, a well-known patron of the arts, had recently married Elizabeth Ramsden and at about this time was employing Robert Adam to add a wing to Newby to house his collection of antique sculpture.

Soon after purchasing his town house Weddell commissioned Adam to make designs for a complete rebuilding. This ambitious proposal, which would have made No. 6 Upper Brook Street one of the finest late eighteenth-century houses on the Grosvenor estate, was not realised but some of Adam's drawings for it survive. (ref. 30) They show that the front elevation was to have had an arcaded ground floor and four half-columns embracing the first and second floors, a monumental theme comparable with 'Athenian' Stuart's Lichfield House in St. James's Square. The rear wing, extending along the east side of Shepherd's Court, would also have had a formal east façade with a symmetrical arrangement of pedimented windows at ground-floor level and tripartite windows under fanpatterned lunettes on the principal storey (Plate 56a). The arrangement of the interior was to have complemented this external magnificence. The first-floor plan (Plate 56b) provided an axial sequence of three drawing-rooms of dramatically varied shape and proportions, the front room being rectangular while the circular central chamber was domed and toplit like a small version of the saloon at Kedleston, and the third at the back had apsidal ends. The rear wing was occupied by Mrs. Weddell's private apartments, the first of which was a square dressing-room with apses at either end, columns in the four corners and a groined ceiling. This room communicated at its north end with a small octagonal boudoir and a small oval 'powdering' room set side by side in the centre, the former providing access to the rectangular bed-chamber at the far end. This splendid sequence of rooms is characteristic of Adam's town-house plans and would have vied with the lost interior of Derby House, Grosvenor Square, in variety and magnificence.

Weddell evidently considered these proposals too ambitious, but in 1787 he brought in Samuel Wyatt to make extensive changes to the existing structure. Wyatt's scheme went forward from about August of that year. It amounted to an internal reconstruction of at least the main floors, with a new stone staircase, an enlarged dining-room and the uniting of two rooms at the back. (ref. 31) Progress is documented in a series of ebullient letters to Weddell from his friends in town. In the autumn, William Palgrave paid two admiring visits to the house. After the first, he reported: 'I saw the fine curve of the Trunk Cieling in the sky light that was and the new and beautiful Cornice of the Drawing Room, not yet finish'd. I admired the light and airy look of the Eating room with the new circular end behind the columns — In short, I was so full of gaping admiration, that I came away with my mouth full of dust and mortar.' The second time, he was accompanied by Wyatt ('the wonder-working Chip', as Palgrave christened the ex-carpenter), who 'shewed me his unfinished members and design for filling up the Niches on each side of the door. I must think that his natural powers of genius and Fancy seem to dilate and enlarge themselves with more freedom and energy under Mrs. Weddell's encouragement, than under the cold hand of Lady Fleming.' On this occasion Palgrave was also struck by a 'fanciful Machine' devised or procured by Wyatt for lighting the staircase, perhaps an early Argand lamp. (fn. b) Another friend, John Wheler of No. 10 Upper Brook Street, paid a visit in December 1787 and 'ask'd one of the workmen, if the house would be habitable after Xmas:- not soon after Xmas: was the answer.—the windows are not in, or the floors laid, or the scaffolding taken down (for I gave my head a great bump) or the banisters up'. A year later, Weddell was still trying to get workmen out of the house. (ref. 33)

Of the appearance of these alterations, all too little can be said. On the front, Wyatt seems to have lengthened the first-floor windows and erected three plaques above them bearing swags (fig. 8a in vol. XXXIX). In rebuilding these storeys it is likely that he used some type of imitation stone or slate, bonded unconventionally on to the main structure; this was later on to give trouble. (Wyatt, it may be noted, used flush slate cladding to look like stone at Shugborough and elsewhere in the country.) As for the interior, photographs of surviving details in the drawing-room taken in 1902 indicate an interior decorative scheme of exceptional elegance and originality. The 'Trunk Cieling', in the back (bowed) room on the first floor, was a composition in an advanced Pompeian taste, almost French Empire in flavour, incorporating marbled panels and small-scale figures of griffins and Graces, painted and in plaster relief (fn. c) (Plate 56c, 56d). As was often the case in Wyatt's work, the ceiling accorded closely with the chimneypiece, which displayed similar figures standing on pedestals and bearing baskets of fruit (Plate 17d in vol. XXXIX). A design for Mrs. Weddell's dressing-room ceiling, showing bowed ends, is also extant and is in a more conventionally Adamesque neo-classical style. (ref. 34)

Weddell did not long enjoy his new house. He died in 1792 'on entering the cold bath' and left his property to his widow. (ref. 35) She was unable to renew the lease until 1815. (ref. 36) There were then difficulties in 1823 about the status of 'two tenements ... built as leans-to to her house'; these were probably behind Nos. 7 or 8, and indicate that an extension to the main house already existed in the garden. (ref. 37) These extensions were augmented by the Ramsden family, to whom the house passed in 1831 on Mrs. Weddell's death. In 1851, just before Sir John William Ramsden came of age, Thomas Cubitt was entrusted with works to the value of some £2,200, including a 'new building' and probably also the replacement of the old back stair. (ref. 38) In 1876 the lease was renewed following works to the stables. These were undertaken by G. Habershon, who also superintended some exterior painting in 1880, perhaps covering at least part of the front. (ref. 39)

The Ramsdens ceased to occupy the house after 1895. The builder John Garlick acquired it and spent some £3,300 on improvements, nearly all internal, in 1901–2, but nothing is known of them. (ref. 40) In 1904 came a first application to erect a porch, which was resisted by the estate surveyor, Eustace Balfour, 'as the house is an "Adam" house, and the portico would spoil the effect of the front'. (ref. 41) A few years later the house was said to have 'very bad' stables, so when in 1912 a new tenant, Lord Elphinstone, asked to build garages and a racquets court in their place, the plans of his surveyor Wilfred Froes were quickly approved. (ref. 42) Elphinstone, however, wished also to 'replace the front elevation'. By now this was in an unquestionably defective state, and instead of being bonded on to the brick was found to be 'in places, held back by spokes of old cart wheels dovetailed into wooden timbers of the floors themselves'. (ref. 43) The Grosvenor Board held out against a new design, requiring Elphinstone to rebuild the old elevation entirely in Portland stone, as Edmund Wimperis (Balfour's successor as estate surveyor) insisted that it was 'the most distinctive front of any in the neighbourhood'. The rebuilding duly took place in 1913, with W. Taylor and Company as contractors and W. H. Winder as architect. During the work, most of the old front turned out to be not of stone at all but 'imitation'. This displeased Elphinstone, who having spent £20,000 on the house objected strongly to rusticating the new ground floor and now also wanted a porch. After prolonged argument, these deviations were personally sanctioned by the second Duke of Westminster and an incongruous porch of iron and glass was erected. (ref. 44) Perhaps, however, compromise was effected, for in the only known later view of the house (of 1933) the ground storey clearly appears as rusticated (Plate 55c).

Occupants include: Edward Shepherd, master builder and architect, 1734–5. 2nd Baron and latterly 1st Earl Gower, 1736–54. Sir Brian Broughton-Delves, 5th bt., 1762–6. Robert Gregory, M.P., director of E. India Co., 1767–71. William Weddell, M.P., 1772–92: his wid., Elizabeth Weddell, 1792–1831: her brother, Sir John Ramsden, 4th bt., 1831–3: his son, John Charles Ramsden, 1833–6: the latter's wid., Isabella Ramsden, 1836–87, and her son, Sir John William Ramsden, 5th bt., M.P., 1850–95. 16th Baron Elphinstone, 1912–32.

No. 7

No. 7 is an unassuming brick house which, like No. 8, was leased to Edward Cock, carpenter, in 1732 (ref. 45) (Plate 55c). The plasterer John Shepherd was party to the lease, Cock and he being much involved in development around the then Shepherd's Court (now Place). The plot of No. 7 included a narrow strip of ground stretching behind No. 8 to Shepherd's Court; at a quite early date, this strip was widened and the depth of No. 8 correspondingly reduced. 'New attics' to the main part of the house were constructed in 1873 and further changes took place in 1887–8 and 1892; the main stairs and hall, the principal features of the annexe towards Shepherd's Place, and the first-floor decorations probably date from one of these campaigns. (ref. 46) But there are some original features within and the front retains its old character, albeit with a fanlight and first-floor balcony of the early nineteenth century.

Occupants include: Lady Betty Lowther (and/or Sir Thomas Lowther, 2nd bt., M.P.), 1735–7. Dow. Countess of Delorain, wid. of 3rd Earl, 1741. Frederick Richard West, M.P., 1827–32. Walter K. Sibley, physician, 1895–8.

No. 8

No. 8, again leased in 1732 by consent of John Shepherd to Edward Cock, carpenter, (ref. 47) is a small affair, only sixteen feet in width and about forty in depth, and with two rooms on each floor (Plate 55c). Despite many alterations it has kept something of its original appearance. In 1955, during a conversion for Hammerson Estates Limited, the front door was moved round into Shepherd's Place next to the stair, and a bay window inserted towards Upper Brook Street. (ref. 48) Much of the old rough-hewn joinery survives within on the upper floors, and there are the vestiges of a tiny closet wing.

Occupants include: Benjamin Johnson, ? actor, 1736–41. Montagu S. Williams, barrister, 1871–3. Lady Geraldine Somerset, da. of 7th Duke of Beaufort, 1891–1915.

Nos. 9, 10 and 10A

Nos. 9, 10 and 10A, together with Nos. 1 and 3 Shepherd's Place, now form a group of brick houses with bow windows, somewhat lower than the surrounding buildings. They were erected in 1937–8 in a reticent neo-Georgian style by the builders Gee, Walker and Slater to designs by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie. (ref. 49) No. 10A stands at the rear of the site and has a narrow frontage to Lees Place.

They replaced three old houses facing Upper Brook Street. Of these, two (Nos. 9 and 9A) had fronts of twenty feet only and no great depth, as there were small houses in Shepherd's Court behind them. No. 9, leased to John Shepherd, plasterer, in 1729, was at first a coffee house with, by the terms of the lease, its entrance from Shepherd's Court. (ref. 50) In 1877, a new front entrance and portico towards Upper Brook Street were erected (Plate 55c). (ref. 51) No. 9A, also leased in 1729, was an ordinary small house; it acquired an extra storey in 1852 and a balcony in 1869, but otherwise little is known of it. (ref. 52) The largest of these houses, No. 10, was leased in 1732. (ref. 53) A spacious house of four windows' width and stabling at the back, it had a central staircase but, apparently, no back stair before 1889. (ref. 54) In 1897–8 the house was practically rebuilt by T. H. Smith for Woolf Joel, the nephew and co-heir of Barney Barnato, the diamond king. Barnato had previously employed Smith to build a palatial house in Park Lane but he had committed suicide before occupying it. Here, too, death intervened, for in 1898 Joel was assassinated in Johannesburg at the early age of thirty-five. By this time the builders (Colls and Sons) had spent nearly £9,000 on the house; work was promptly stopped and the house was not inhabited until 1901. (ref. 55) In 1929 it reverted to the Estate, which made small improvements prior to the brief occupation of Stanley Baldwin. (ref. 56)

Occupants include: No. 9A, Thomas Ewer, M.P. and London merchant, 1789–90. (Sir) Charles Hay Seton, latterly 7th bt., 1855–69. No. 10, Sir Francis Head, 4th bt., 1732–41. 2nd Earl of Portmore, 1741–5. Sir Robert Brown, 1st bt., M.P. and merchant, 1745–60: his wid., 1760–82. William Strode, sometime M.P., 1782–3, 1794–1809. Sir John Honywood, 4th bt., 1785–6. 2nd Baron Rancliffe, 1811–20. Sir Charles Knightley, 2nd bt., 1821–60. (Sir) Edward Birkbeck, M.P., later bt., 1869–83. Stanley Baldwin, sometime Prime Minister, later 1st Earl Baldwin, 1930–2.

No. 11

No. 11, a house of only fifteen feet in frontage but full depth to Lees Place, was originally leased in 1732. (ref. 57) Its attractions were modest, for in 1814–15 an attempt by its tenant, Mrs. Augusta de Crespigny, to sell her twenty-oneyear interest for £2,000 proved unsuccessful, and she was reduced to letting the house by the year to 'a taylor and a Tradesman', who wished to turn the laundry into a workshop. (ref. 58) When the renewed lease expired, the old house was taken down and a new one erected in 1852–3 by the local developer Wright Ingle. The narrow front with its stone and cement dressings, balconies and portico is a characteristic creation of Thomas Cundy II, but the house appears to have been planned for Ingle by Henry Harrison and built for him by Reading Watts (ref. 59) (fig. 14a in vol. XXXIX). In 1886–7 Mark H. Judge, architect, made improvements for C. C. Lacaita, including an extra storey in keeping with the earlier work, and in 1908 a new 'smoking room' was formed. (ref. 60) The interior remains unpretentious today, with Ingle's simple staircase still in the central position.

Occupants include: Lady Hester Grenville, later the wife of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister, 1753. Gen. Sir Thomas Brotherton, K.C.B., 1855–67. Sir John Gladstone, 3rd bt., 1894–1904. Sir Robert Burnet, kt., physician, 1910–12.

No. 12

No. 12, in its rudiments, is still the original house leased in 1729 to Elizabeth Alleyne, widow. (ref. 61) It was the broadest house on the north side of the street with a frontage of thirty-eight feet, and it had ampler storey heights than its neighbours; consequently it enjoyed a succession of fashionable residents. By the mid nineteenth century the front had been cased in stucco, an operation performed perhaps either in 1801, when there was talk of building work, or in about 1818–19, when a steep rise in rateable value occurred; at some point the well-known builder Henry Rowles acquired an interest in the house, so he may have been involved in the process. (ref. 62) This updating could not stave off later routine changes, for in 1867, when the lease was renewed, Thomas Cundy II designed a portico and first-floor balcony carried out by Moses Barnett, builder. (ref. 63) Several subsequent internal alterations are recorded, of which those of 1919–21 and 1926–7 for Oscar Guest, M.P., and his mother Lady Cornelia Wimborne may have been important. (ref. 64) In 1928 a squash court was built on top of the back extension for Captain A. S. Cunningham-Reid, M.P., to designs by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie. (ref. 65)

All these changes were minor compared to the campaign in 1948–9, when the building was largely reconstructed as the residence of the Canadian High Commissioner. To plans by Thomas E. Scott, carried out by Trollope and Colls Limited, the front was extensively reworked in a neo-Georgian taste and the main floors were very largely replanned and redecorated. The rear parts of the house were also rebuilt. (ref. 66)

Occupants include: William Beckford, merchant and later Lord Mayor of London, 1744–8. George Grenville, statesman, 1749–61. Lady Grosvenor, wid. of Sir Robert Grosvenor, 6th bt., 1762–81. Sir Watts Horton, 2nd bt., 1783–99. Sophia Charlotte Howe, suo jure Baroness Howe, da. of Adm. Earl Howe, 1801–7. Lord Paget, later 2nd Earl of Uxbridge and 1st Marquess of Anglesey and Field-Marshal, 1807–10. Benjamin Hall, M.P., father of Sir Benjamin Hall, Baron Llanover, 1811–17. Richard William Penn Curzon, latterly 2nd Viscount Curzon and 1st Earl Howe of 2nd cr., son of Baroness Howe by Penn Assheton Curzon, 1820–6. 4th Viscount Midleton, 1827–36: his wid., 1836–7. John Basset, M.P., writer on mining, 1837–43. Gen. Edward Pyndar Lygon, son of 1st Earl of Beauchamp, 1844–60: his sister, Lady Louisa Lygon, 1860–4. 15th Viscount Dillon, 1865–6. Dow. Marchioness Townshend, wid. of 4th Marquess Townshend, 1867–71. Lord Richard De Aquila Grosvenor, son of 2nd Marquess of Westminster, latterly 1st Baron Stalbridge, 1880–96. 5th Earl of Radnor, 1897–1900: his wid., 1900–19. Oscar Guest, M.P., son of 1st Baron Wimborne, 1920–4: his mother, Lady Cornelia Wimborne, 1924–7. Capt. A. S. Cunningham-Reid, M.P., 1928–39.

Nos. 13 Upper Brook Street and 80 and 82 Park Street.

The building now on the site of No. 13 and No. 80 consists of a block of flats of medium size built in 1929–30 by Bovis Limited to designs by Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie to complement their larger blocks on opposite corners of this cross-road. (ref. 67)

The two smallish houses which formerly stood here were both first leased in 1728, (ref. 68) the corner house being entered from and nearly always numbered in Park Street. By 1801 John Claridge, a surveyor, was the lessee of both No. 13 Upper Brook Street and the building behind it, then a stable, which he converted into a house, the present No. 82 Park Street, between about 1803 and 1807. (ref. 69) This house still survives with a simple stucco front. During the tenancy of Ernest Day, dentist, the front was embellished with decorative mouldings and a new canopy over the first-floor balcony (1905); these have now disappeared, but the extra storey in the roof added by Day in 1912 still remains. (ref. 70) The plan is basic and simple.

Meanwhile in 1871 No. 13 Upper Brook Street was formally divided in tenancy from No. 82 Park Street and underwent alteration at the hands of a house agent. (ref. 71) As for No. 80 Park Street at the corner, the first Duke of Westminster opined that it was 'hideous and incapable of improvement beyond repointing'. (ref. 72) Nevertheless in 1891 the twentieth Earl of Shrewsbury proposed, in exchange for a new lease, to unite No. 80 with No. 13; this was duly done by W. H. Lascelles and Company to designs by T. Tayler Smith. (ref. 73) The new enlarged house was called No. 13 Upper Brook Street and the portico towards Park Street was stopped up. Surviving drawings by J. Hungerford Pollen for a ceiling, friezes and painted panels, suggest that quite elaborate interiors were included in the house. (ref. 74)

In 1895 the house still presented a brick front to Park Street, but by 1908 the whole of the exterior was stuccoed. In 1918 the house passed to Richard Tilden Smith, (ref. 75) who built the flats here a decade later.

Occupants include: No. 13 Upper Brook Street, Dow. Countess of Morton, wid. of 15th Earl, 1805. Richard Hodgson, M.P., Chairman of North British Railway, 1841–8. 20th Earl of Shrewsbury, 1885–97, who united the house with No. 80 Park Street. No. 80 Park Street, Lady Vane, ? wid. of 1st Viscount Vane, 1739–41. Gen. Armiger (? Emerger), 1750–67. Maj.-gen. Humphrey Stephens, 1783–91. Countess of Portarlington, wid. of 1st Earl, 1806–8. Samuel Bosanquet, ? miscellaneous writer, 1842–5. Mrs. Fanny Bury Palliser, writer on art, 1856–9, 1864–8. Danish Legation, 1861–2. Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown's Schooldays, 1871–85 (previously at No. 33 Park Street).

Nos. 14, 15A and 15 Upper Brook Street.

The site of these three houses, and of nine adjoining in Park Street (Nos. 63–79 odd) is now occupied by a large range of flats erected in 1922–4 and known as Upper Feilde (see page 258). The corner house, eventually No. 14 Upper Brook Street, was leased in 1728 and quickly became the Barley Mow public house, entered from Park Street. (ref. 76) In 1822–3 the local architect-builder Samuel Erlam agreed to rebuild it as a private house, though he later assigned it to a victualler. (ref. 77) Another public house slightly to the north, the Crown at No. 67 Park Street, survived until 1886. (ref. 75) At about this time there were plans to rebuild all the houses here, which were nearly all in commercial use, but this was postponed. (ref. 78) In Upper Brook Street, the houses westwards of the corner were first leased in 1729. (ref. 79) They were No. 15A and, to its west, No. 15. Little is known of them, but a photograph of 1913 shows that No. 15 had a plain brick front, segmentally headed windows, a stuccoed ground floor and a nineteenth-century portico (Plate 44b in vol. XXXIX).

Occupants include: No. 15A, Lady Isabella Thynne, da. of 1st Marquess of Bath, 1828–35: her sister, Lady Caroline Thynne, 1835–67. Alexander Goschen, brother of 1st Viscount Goschen, 1880–7. No. 15, Capt. John Aldred, R.N., 1733–40. James Duff, latterly Viscount Macduff and later 2nd Earl Fife, 1758–60. John Bullock, M.P., 1763–4. Lady Betty Finch, da. of 2nd Earl of Aylesford, 1764–71. James Forbes, ? the orientalist, 1810–13. Capt. (Sir) William Augustus Montague, R.N., later kt., 1824–9 (later at No. 18).

No. 16

No. 16, with its neighbours Nos. 17 and 18, makes up part of a range of similar but by no means identical stone-fronted houses of the early twentieth century. This one was built in 1912–13 to designs by the estate surveyor, Edmund Wimperis, for A. C. F. Hill, a local developer; F. Foxley and Company were the builders. (ref. 80) The elevation was given a shaped gable and stacked dormers to match those of the already-existing No. 17, but the lesser frontage of this house obliged Wimperis to introduce variations, for instance a bow window on the ground floor (Plate 44b in vol. XXXIX). The house was damaged at the rear during the war of 1939–45.

The preceding house on the site, leased in 1729, (ref. 81) was of some interest. In 1788 Miss Lowther (whose family long resided here) was said by a near neighbour to be 'doing a great deal at her house', and a plan of 1803 reveals a large single-storey drawing-room added at the back. (ref. 82) In 1850 the house was left to the wife of Richard Monckton Milnes, latterly Lord Houghton, and they took up residence in it in 1852. Its 'endless stairs and steps, slips and cupboards', by 'making so much out of space so little', reminded Milnes' father 'of the Kingdom of Monaco, or the expedients of a country theatre', but did not deter Milnes from entertaining here lavishly. (ref. 83)

Occupants include: 8th Baron Petre, 1741–2. James Newsham, M.P., 1745–7. Robert Lowther, sometime M.P., 1765–77: his relatives, Miss Lowther, 1777–95, and Mrs. Barbara Lowther, 1796–1805. Lord George Seymour, son of 1st Marquess of Hertford, 1806–8. Lord Primrose, later 4th Earl of Rosebery, 1809–12: Sir Henry St. John Mildmay, 4th bt., later 2nd husband of Lord Primrose's divorced wife, 1813–14. Henry Burton, M.P., 1834–41. Lady Macnaghten, wid. of Sir Francis Workman Macnaghten, 1st bt., 1852. Richard Monckton Milnes, M.P., latterly 1st Baron Houghton, 1852–70. Samuel Morley, M.P., textile manufacturer and philanthropist, 1875–80. Frederick William Lambton, later 4th Earl of Durham, 1881–2. 8th Earl of Sandwich, 1887–92. Sir John Whittaker Ellis, bt., sometime Lord Mayor of London, 1907–10. 6th Viscount Hood, and his mother, 1939–41 (previously at No. 20).

No. 17

No. 17 was the first of the three stone-fronted houses in this part of the street to be rebuilt to elevations by the firm of Edmund Wimperis. In 1907 the builder John Garlick bought the lease of the old house and proposed to rebuild, offering the Grosvenor Board four choices of architect. As at No. 1, they selected Wimperis and Best, who were asked to produce a front in stone without a bay window. The ensuing ornamental design provided for a small shaped gable at the top, separate balconies for the first-floor windows, and strong cornices over the main storeys (Plate 44b in vol. XXXIX). Garlick proceeded speedily with the work in 1908. (ref. 84) At that time the old house was said, for what it is worth, to have been 'without any interesting features'; (ref. 85) it had first been leased in 1729. (ref. 86)

Occupants include: Maj. Welden and/or Lady Charlotte Welden, 1734–8. John Frederick Campbell, latterly 2nd Baron and later 1st Earl Cawdor, 1819–22. Col. (later maj.-gen.) Thomas Steele, 1824–43. Anthony John Ashley-Cooper, Q.C., son of 6th Earl of Shaftesbury, 1843–67: his wid., 1868–1907. 7th Earl of Lisburne, 1917–21.

No. 18

No. 18, rebuilt in 1913–16, was the last of the three adjacent houses here with elevations in stone by Edmund Wimperis. Oddly, it seems never to have been proposed to give this design the attractive gables enjoyed by Nos. 16 and 17, and the general lines of the front are derived from No. 2 further east, not from its immediate neighbours. Undoubtedly Wimperis and Simpson were impeded here because they were architects for the front only, while the plans were the responsibility of Ralph Knott and E. Stone Collins, 'one of whom was a relative of Mr. [G.P.] Kent's', the building lessee, whose firm, G. and E. Kent, erected the house. (ref. 87) Wimperis thought these plans clumsy, perhaps because of the curious arrangement of a small octagonal room on the first floor at the back, without further rooms on top. In other respects the planning follows one of the conventions for grand Edwardian town houses, having a spacious central hall and two ample staircases. War delayed the house's completion, so that the lease was ready to be granted only in 1916; the first occupant, Sir John Barwick, had various alterations made by Maples in 1919. (ref. 88)

The previous house here, sub-leased in 1737 to John Simmons, carpenter, had the front-compartment staircase common in houses of broad frontage at this date. (ref. 89) Its earliest occupant was the first Earl of Pomfret, whose wife's diaries refer in November 1741 to coming to live 'at our hired House in Upper-Brooke-street'. Lady Pomfret was familiar with William Kent, to whose design a 'Great Glass' was installed in the drawing-room shortly afterwards. (ref. 90) The Pomfrets having moved to Grosvenor Street in 1747, it is likely that this was the house described as 'Pretty well finished with ornamental ceilings', in a list by the architect John Sanderson of empty houses in the locality. (ref. 91) Later, this was from 1799 the principal residence of Anne Seymour Damer, the sculptress and confidante of Horace Walpole, from whom she inherited Strawberry Hill. She died here in 1828, but is not known to have made any changes to the house. (ref. 92)

Occupants include: 1st Earl of Pomfret, 1741–7. Lieut.-gen. Sir Charles Howard, K.B., son of 3rd Earl of Carlisle, 1749–65. Sir George Thomas, 1st bt., Governor of Pennsylvania, 1770–4. John Chetwynd Talbot, latterly 3rd Baron Talbot, later 1st Earl Talbot, 1776–83. Anne Seymour Damer, sculptress, 1799–1828. Capt. (Sir) William Augustus Montague, R.N., latterly kt., 1829–33 (previously at No. 15). John Nicholas Fazakerley, M.P., 1836–41. William Beckett, M.P. and banker, 1841–63. (Sir) William James Farrer, latterly kt., 1868–1911. Sir John Storey Barwick, 2nd bt., 1919–41.

No. 19

No. 19, though never rebuilt from the foundations, retains few traces of Georgian work. Like No. 18 it was sub-leased to John Simmons, carpenter, in 1737 and its dimensions were similar, so that the plan was probably of the same type. (ref. 93) In 1864–5 John Ashley was promised a renewed lease if he altered the front to Thomas Cundy II's well-known prescription; a portico, first-floor balcony and window dressings of stone were therefore added. New basement rooms were probably built under the garden at this time, but the rear elevation, with a bow running through the main storeys, had assumed its present form before Ashley's tenancy. (ref. 94) Later Victorian alterations included an extra storey and the rebuilding of parts of the stables, executed to designs by Arding and Bond in 1885–6. (ref. 95)

The house assumed its present ornate internal appearance in 1903–4, as a result of the ambition of Arthur W. Davis, probably a merchant with South African connexions. Davis commissioned a very costly internal reconstruction in the Empire style from the architects W. H. Romaine-Walker and Besant, and the decorators Charles Mellier and Company, who employed French workmen on the job. As the lease was soon due to expire, this was not to the liking of the Estate, which did not want to be pressed into renewal in the mere knowledge that Davis had paid £12,000 for the house and £20,000 more on works. But in 1905 the adverse state of the property market compelled the Grosvenor Board to change its leasing policy, and the new long lease which was soon afterwards granted in effect secured the survival of several of the adjacent houses. (ref. 96) On the evidence of directories, Davis scarcely seems to have lived here. In 1916, when he reluctantly gave up the house, it was said that 'Mr. [Solly] Joel has financed him for years'. In that year Joel had alterations made by Mellier, and the next inhabitant was his estranged wife Nellie. (ref. 97)

Apart from the enclosure of the portico, the works by Romaine-Walker and his associates were all internal and survive substantially, despite partitioning. There is a marble floor to the entrance hall and a curving central staircase of some elegance. The reception rooms are good examples of the French taste of the Edwardian years, particularly the drawing-rooms at first-floor level, which parade elaborate parquet floors and rich gilded ornament.

Occupants include: 3rd Viscount Doneraile, 1742–4. Rebecca, Lady Abergavenny, wid. of 16th Baron, 1744–8. Sir Charles Hotham, 6th bt., 1758–61. Lady Frances Coningsby, da. of Earl of Coningsby and wife of Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams, K.B., 1762–81. Edward Rose Tunno, M.P., 1824–63. Brazilian Embassy, 1921–40.

No. 20

No. 20 was sub-leased in 1737 to William Atlee, painter, with the carpenter John Simmons as party to the lease. (ref. 98) The house still has its old plan, with a front-compartment staircase in wood (much renewed and altered) ascending to the first floor, where the ceiling over the stair, like that in the ground-floor front room, retains sketchy Georgian plasterwork. The second floor also exhibits much original panelling.

The process of additions and alterations seems to have started by the early nineteenth century, when the present doorcase with fanlight and the stucco on the front had probably already been added. In 1854 rear additions were made; and in 1865–6 the house was raised a storey, and the regulation porch, window dressings and balcony were put on to designs by Thomas Cundy II, while Thomas Bellamy, architect for the tenant, Sir John Boileau, added kitchens under the garden. (ref. 99) In 1875 the builder Charles Fish acquired an interest in the house and made other changes. (ref. 100) Yet further works of 1887 for W. H. Fellowes, M.P., who in that year became the second Lord De Ramsey, were carried out by A. and E. Braid with J. Sargeant, surveyor; they probably included the present attic storey and perhaps also, as there were 'special outlays', the startling backdrop in stone and stucco that separated the house from the mews buildings at the back of the garden. (ref. 101) More recent changes to the house were undertaken for Lady Hood, for whom a small back extension was made on the ground floor to create a larger dining-room. (ref. 102)

Occupants include: Mr. Fortnam, ? Richard Fortnam, bricklayer, son-in-law of John Simmons, carpenter, 1744–5. Maj.-gen. Ralph Burton, M.P., 1767–8: his wid., 1768–90: Maj-.gen. Napier Christie Burton, 1791–1809. Lady Sullivan, probably wid. of Sir Richard Sullivan, 1st bt., 1810–26. (Sir) John Boileau, latterly 1st bt., archaeologist, 1827–69: his son, Sir Francis Boileau, 2nd bt., 1869–75. William Henry Fellowes, M.P., latterly 2nd Baron De Ramsey, 1879–90. Sir John William Kelk, 2nd bt., 1899–1911. Brig.-gen. Douglas MacEwen, 1912–22. Lady Hood, wid. of Rear-adm. Sir Horace Hood, 1925–37, and her son, 6th Viscount Hood, 1935–7 (later at No. 16).

No. 21

No. 21 until recent years kept a brick front little altered from its earliest appearance of about 1737, when the house was sub-leased to John Simmons, carpenter. (ref. 103) It is a taller house than its contemporary and neighbour No. 20, and originally had a stone bandcourse and stringcourse between ground and first floor to interrupt a front otherwise purely of brick.

The present wide doorcase and fanlight probably stem from the long tenancy of Charles Herbert (1779–1816) when, on internal evidence, large alterations were made (there was a rise in rateable value in 1787 (ref. 104) ). Elegant cornices and a pair of columns on the ground floor and one or two fireplaces here and elsewhere, all somewhat in the style of Henry Holland, remain within the house. In 1871 the lease was renewed 'subject to the elevation remaining as it is'. (ref. 105) Then in 1889–90 the architect H. C. Boyes made large additions at the rear, including a big ground-floor room and new back stairs. (ref. 106) The main staircase, which has an ornamental balustrade of wrought iron, perhaps assumed its form at the same time. In 1929 the mews premises were separated off during works for Lady Evelyn Mason by Alfred B. Yeates.

Shortly after the war of 1939–45 the brickwork of the front was coloured. Then in 1973 MEPC Limited undertook a very full conversion and refurbishment of the house, in the process of which the front was stuccoed in accordance with Regency ideals. (ref. 107)

Occupants include: Sir Edmund Thomas, 3rd bt., 1742–51. Maj.-gen. William Herbert, M.P., son of 8th Earl of Pembroke, 1751–7. William Dowdeswell, politician, 1758–65, 1767–75: his wid., 1775–8. Charles Herbert, M.P., son of Maj.-gen. William Herbert, 1779–1816: his wid., da. of 3rd Duke of Manchester, 1817: her relative, Hon. Miss Montagu, 1818–42: Thomas Steele, 1843–5: his wid., da. of 5th Duke of Manchester, 1845–55. Edward Brydges Willyams, M.P., 1883–5. Lady Evelyn Mason, wid. of James Francis Mason and da. of 26th Earl of Crawford, 1929–41.

No. 22

No. 22 retains only the carcase of the original structure, which in this case was sub-leased to Joshua Fletcher, mason, in 1742. (ref. 108) The house had presumably just been occupied in October 1744, when Lord Bolingbroke wrote to its first inhabitant, the third Earl of Marchmont, imploring him to take the pirated edition of Bolingbroke's pamphlet The Idea of a Patriot King (which had fallen into Marchmont's hands) and 'see it burned att yr House, to help to dry which is the best use it can be put to'. (ref. 109)

A critical date for No. 22 was 1881, when a new tenant, the Reverend Sir William Lionel Darell, baronet, seems practically to have rebuilt it to designs by R. Fabian Russell (of Osborn and Russell), with Merritt and Ashby as builders. (ref. 110) The front took on a new character (Plate 55a), with a portico, ornamental iron balcony, stuccowork to the walling and pedimented dormers, while a grand toplit dining-room appeared at the back. Within, the back portion seems to have been opened out to create a broad hall from party wall to party wall, and the stairs were probably replanned. Fittings and decoration were carried out in a florid Jacobethan style involving much oak woodwork. Darell died in 1883, perhaps without having ever lived in the house.

The only later set of works recorded are of 1906–7, when the Arts and Crafts architect Gerald Horsley refitted the stables (since demolished) and also altered the main house for Leo Bonn; perhaps the modest bay window to the front on the ground floor is his. (ref. 111)

Occupants include: 3rd Earl of Marchmont, 1744–63. Frederick Keppel, Bishop of Exeter, 1763–70. Lady (Barbara) Molesworth, wid. of Sir John Molesworth, 5th bt., 1801–14. Sir Carnaby Haggerston, 5th bt., 1815–22. William Battie Wrightson, M.P., 1841–78. Sir Edward Cholmeley Dering, 8th bt., 1885–90. Leo Bonn, bank director, 1891–1929: his wid., 1929–41.

No. 23

No. 23 is one storey lower than its neighbours (Plate 55a). It was first sub-leased in 1742 to Thomas Barratt, brickmaker, and John Barlow, bricklayer, (ref. 112) and being narrower than its neighbours had a more modest toplit central staircase with closets alongside serving the front and back rooms; this arrangement survives. The staircase is approached from the entrance hall through an archway and has wall-supported stone treads, elegantly chamfered underneath, and a crinoline-shaped iron balustrade of simple lyre pattern. The circular skylight with festoons and paterae round the drum is a late eighteenth-century alteration. The original treatment of several of the rooms also survives with wall panelling and moulded and dentilled cornices. A substantial rear addition was made in about 1808 for John Drummond. (ref. 113) A portico, stone balconettes, stucco dressings, and partial rustication overtook the front early in 1865, following the normal prescription of Thomas Cundy II. (ref. 114) Of the house's later fortunes little is known. In 1912–13 Claude Hope Morley took it over from Lord Furness (who had previously contemplated rebuilding it), converted the stables into a garage and replaced the two main balconettes on the front with ironwork. (ref. 115) In 1926–7 the mews premises were divided off, and in 1973 the Rolfe Judd Group Practice undertook important internal works to the main house. (ref. 116)

Occupants include: William Monckton, latterly 2nd Viscount Galway, 1751–7. Sir Edward Blackett, 4th bt., M.P., 1758–73. Col. Robert Seymour Conway, son of 1st Marquess of Hertford, 1773–82. Sir Thomas Maynard Hesilrige, 10th bt., 1811–17: his wid., Lady Maynard Hesilrige, 1817–64, with her 2nd husband, Frederick Fielding, barrister, 1842–54. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, M.P., 3rd bt., 1867–73. Dow. Countess of Mayo, wid. of 6th Earl, 1874–7. Viscount Curzon, M.P., later 4th Earl Howe, 1885–94. Sir Christopher Furness, M.P., ship-owner and industrialist, latterly 1st Baron Furness, 1902–12. Claude Hope Morley, son of 1st Baron Hollenden, 1912–18.

No. 24

No. 24 was sub-leased together with No. 25 to Lawrence Neale, carpenter, in 1742. (ref. 117) It has never been entirely rebuilt, though now completely transformed, and, it is possible that the elaborate plaster ceilings visible in the first-floor drawing-rooms in 1917 (ref. 118) were original.

In 1850 the front was embellished by Thomas Cundy II with a modicum of cement dressings to the windows, but he did not add a portico. (ref. 119) Larger alterations began in 1880, when John Livock, architect, with Charles Aldin and Sons as builders, added an extra storey. (ref. 120) The tenant of this time declined to add a portico, but the want seems to have been supplied in 1889 by his successor, the stockbroker Sydney Ernest Kennedy, to an elaborate design by Goldie, Child and Goldie (ref. 121) (Plate 55a). Kennedy later proceeded with a major internal transformation, by which the ground-floor rooms and corridor were filled with ornate Jacobethan and Flemish woodwork and fireplaces of good quality, a new wooden staircase was installed in the front position, and the drawing-rooms took on a conventional French appearance. The timing of these works is uncertain; in 1898 the decorators Messrs. Morant were enclosing the portico, but the more likely date is 1906–7, when R. Selden Wornum designed 'a large library or reception room' at No. 8 Wood's Mews in replacement of the old mews building, to display some of Kennedy's furniture collection (Plate 53b). Wornum also pushed out an oblique bay to the ground-floor front room, and perhaps took the lead in working out the whole 'mediaevalizing' scheme for this floor (ref. 122) (Plate 42c in vol. XXXIX).

Stretches of Kennedy's panelling still survive in the main corridor, and the stairs have not been much simplified. But most of the reception rooms have been brought back to comparative sobriety; the main ground-floor rooms have lost their deep ceilings, the large room at the back has been cut up, and the drawing-rooms were redecorated, perhaps in 1928. (ref. 123)

Occupants include: 2nd Duke of Chandos, 1746–54. Richard Bull, M.P., 1755–74. Sir John Wodehouse, 6th bt., latterly 1st Baron Wodehouse, 1782–1824. Robert Curzon, son of 1st Viscount Curzon, 1826–50. Henry Wodehouse, great-grandson of 1st Baron Wodehouse, 1851–73, and his mother, Mrs. Anne Wodehouse, 1851–80. Robert Henry Meade, civil servant, son of 3rd Earl of Clanwilliam, 1881–8. Sydney Ernest Kennedy, stockbroker, 1891–1921.

No. 25

No. 25 was wholly rebuilt in 1907–8 to designs by R. G. Hammond. The previous house had been built in conjunction with No. 24 in about 1742 and shared with it a common cornice and storey heights. (ref. 124) There was a frontcompartment staircase and, by 1805, a bay on the main back room. (ref. 13) Thomas Cundy II executed the usual improvements to the front in 1865. (ref. 125)

In 1906 Sir Lewis McIver, M.P., agreed to a rebuilding of the house, which was required 'for structural reasons', in exchange for a new lease. Hammond was his choice of architect and building proceeded in 1907–8. Some old materials may have been used, but McIver's expenditure was £18,000, of which £11,443 was paid to the builders Prestige and Company and £5,052 to the decorators Lansdell and Company. (ref. 126) The plan provided a spacious hall in the centre of the house, a single-storey dining-room behind, and a motor-house at the back. The front is entirely of Portland stone, with a bay through the three principal storeys (Plate 55a). The roof is of green Tilberthwaite slating, and the mews property displays an attractive brick-and-stone elevation towards the house.

Of several inter-war sets of alterations, the most notable occurred in 1933, when Lenygon and Morant redecorated the first-floor drawing-rooms in a full and suave neo-Georgian style for Mrs. Claude Leigh, supplanting all the applied Edwardian plasterwork with light-oak panelling (ref. 127) (Plate 53a in vol. XXXIX).

Occupants include: Lady Frances Bland, wid. of Sir John Bland, 5th bt., 1744–58. Charles Gray Round, M.P., 1842–8. Lady (Laura) Ridley, wid. of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 3rd bt., 1848–64. Henry Gerard Sturt, later 1st Baron Alington, sportsman, 1867–9. Dow. Marchioness of Londonderry, wid. of 4th Marquess, 1874–84. (Sir) Lewis McIver, M.P., latterly bt., 1887–1920. George Richard James Hennessy, M.P., later successively bt. and 1st Baron Windlesham, 1921–7.

No. 26

No. 26 was built in 1908–9 to the designs of Arnold Mitchell. Its predecessor, almost the last house to be built on the north side of Upper Brook Street, was leased in 1746. (ref. 128) A house with high storey heights, it had a dog-leg staircase and just two large rooms on the ground floor. In about 1808–10 the tenant, Robert Deverell, undertook alterations 'not of the ordinary kind but . . . greatly to the improvement of Lord Grosvenor's reversionary property in the Premises'. Both the planning and the elevation were changed, as appears from a survey made by James Morgan in 1812 before the next inhabitant, Lord Ossulston, moved in. (ref. 129) Later, the front was probably elaborated, perhaps when additions were made in 1848, and a porch was put on in 1886. (ref. 130)

In 1908 the Estate decreed a rebuilding in return for a new lease. The lessee, J. Monro Coats, therefore brought in Arnold Mitchell, doubtless on the strength of the works he had just completed at Brook House next door. For No. 26, Mitchell provided a stiff, Tudor-style elevation in stone, with bay windows and a gable which the alarmed Sir Lewis McIver (of the new No. 25) likened to a 'paper cocked hat on the top'. An enclosed portico was disallowed, but Mitchell was permitted to omit the small panes of glass beloved by the estate surveyor, Eustace Balfour (ref. 131) (Plate 55a).

Figure 48: No. 26 Upper Brook Street and No. 4 Wood's Mews, plans, and details of plasterwork in the principal rooms

Internally, the house has the normal Edwardian arrangements (fig. 48). At the back a large reception room replaces the old stables. Most of the decoration follows town-house conventions of the time, so that the drawing-rooms are French in character, the ground-floor front room neo-Georgian. But the two other reception rooms at ground level display panelling and some very pretty applied plasterwork friezes and ceilings in the tradition of Ernest Gimson. These were probably executed by the craftsmen of the Bromsgrove Guild, with whom Mitchell was several times associated. Holland and Hannen were the builders of the house, which is essentially intact but has suffered some partitioning. (ref. 132)

Occupants include: Sir Francis Haskin-Eyles-Styles, 3rd bt., 1747–50. 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, 1751–7. Robert Deverell, M.P., eccentric author, 1805–9. Lord Ossulston, latterly 5th Earl of Tankerville, 1812–25. Lt.-gen. Sir Moore Disney, K.C.B., 1826–46. George Hamilton Roe, physician, 1850–6. Lady Caroline Neeld, wid. of Joseph Neeld, M.P., and da. of 6th Earl of Shaftesbury, 1857–69. Sir Edward Henry Hulse, 6th bt., 1890–1900.

Nos. 27, 28, and 29

Nos. 27, 28 and 29 were all on the site of the present Brook House, and the more recent history of building here will be found on page 280. No. 27, a narrow house with a central staircase and (in 1805) a bow at the back, was first occupied in about 1744 and had an independent history up to about 1904–5. (ref. 133) No. 28, first inhabited in 1745, was a little larger. It may have been improved by William Leverton for John Cookson in about 1799–1801, but nothing for certain is known. (ref. 134) The house was demolished in 1867. No. 29, occupying the corner with Park Lane, was more substantial and important. The site was let in 1729 but not built upon until 1745–6, when it was taken by John Phillips, carpenter; (ref. 135) it had a frontage of forty-six feet towards Upper Brook Street and stretched back to Wood's Mews. The house built by Phillips was spacious and pleasant, with an ample front hall, a 'bow room' projecting towards Park Lane, and one other reception room behind. There was a good garden with a spring and (in the 1850's) a mulberry tree. At the corner itself a sizeable extension to the full height of the house, with a first-floor Venetian window overlooking Upper Brook Street, seems to have been put on by Colonel Gilbert Ironside, perhaps in 1792. It shows up clearly on Smirke and Earlom's view of Park Lane in 1799 (Plate 13a in vol. XXXIX), but in about 1803 S. P. Cockerell seems to have reduced it to a single storey for Ironside's widow. (ref. 136) A detailed inventory of the house's furniture, contents and books in 1827, when it was being let by the fifth Duke of Richmond to his relative by marriage, the sixth Duke of Argyll, explains little about its appearance except that there were two conservatories. (ref. 137) Later alterations were made in 1854 in anticipation of the tenancy of Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, who built Brook House here thirteen years later. (ref. 138)

Occupants include: No. 27, Pierce A'Court Ashe, M.P., 1751–68. 2nd Baron Holland, 1774: his wid., 1774–8. Rev. William Cockburn, minister of St. Andrew's, Tavistock Place, 1806–11. Lady Jane Ellice, 1892–1903. No. 28, Lady Sidney Beauclerk, 1745–53. James Johnson, Bishop of Worcester, 1768–74 (previously at No. 32). Donald Maclean, M.P., 1842–6. No. 29, 14th Earl of Morton, 1747–9. Sir John Rous, 5th bt., 1750. Henry Knight, M.P., 1751–62. James Murray, M.P., 1763–7. (Sir) Francis Sykes, latterly 1st bt., M.P. and Indian nabob, 1770–83. Francis Ferrand Foljambe, M.P., 1783–5. Countess of Charleville, wid. successively of Earl of Charleville and of Sir John Mayne, bt., 1785–9. Count Duvouve, 1790–1. Col. Gilbert Ironside, 1792–1803. 6th Duke of Argyll, 1810–39: his relative, Miss Campbell, 1841–51. Dow. Countess Granville, wid. of 1st Earl, 1852–4. 4th Baron Rivers, 1853–4. (Sir) Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, M.P., later successively bt. and 1st Baron Tweedmouth, 1854–64. Viscount Holmesdale, M.P., later 3rd Earl Amherst, 1865–7.

Footnotes

References