Park Street: West Side
Former houses on the site of Aldford House.
Seven
houses were erected here under an agreement made in
1739 with Roger Blagrave, carpenter. (ref. 54) Some of them were
not occupied until the later 1740's, but thanks, no doubt, to
their fine position overlooking Hyde Park, their occupants
were from the first persons of quality. Formerly numbered
125–131 (consec., from north to south) Park Street, they
became Nos. 1–13 (odd, from south to north) in 1866, and
remained good-sized, fashionable houses until their
demolition for the building of the first Aldford House in
1894–7. Little is known of their respective histories and
appearances, but the largest house was undoubtedly No.
13 (previously 125), at the corner with Chapel Street,
where quite substantial internal alterations appear to have
been made for the first Lord Harrowby under Samuel
Wyatt. (fn. a)
(ref. 55)
Occupants include: No. 1 (formerly 131), Sir Bellingham
Graham, 7th bt., 1840–66. Sir George Elliott, 1st bt., M.P.,
1869–93. (Sir) George William Elliott, later 2nd bt., M.P.,
1875–93. No. 3 (formerly 130), Gen. Thomas Panton, 1745–53.
8th Viscount Mayo, 1756. John Ward, later 2nd Viscount Dudley
and Ward, 1772–4. Countess De La Warr, wid. of 2nd Earl,
1780–4. Gen. Patrick Tonyn, 1786–1804. Sir Robert Lawley, 6th
bt., later 1st Baron Wenlock, 1806–7. W. F. Cooper, M.P., 1850.
Sir Belford H. Wilson, diplomat, 1857–8. Prince Gustavus
Bathyany, attaché to Austrian Embassy, 1862–83. No. 5
(formerly 129), Maj.-gen. Sir Adolphus J. Dalrymple, bt.,
1828–60. Sir Robert N. C. Hamilton, 6th bt., Governor General
of Central India, 1862–71. Samuel W. Clowes, M.P., 1872–89.
No. 7 (formerly 128), Sir Stephen Anderson, 3rd bt., 1744–73.
Countess or Morton, wid. of 15th Earl, 1778–1823: her son, 16th
Earl, 1823–7: his wid., 1827–33. 1st Baron Methuen, 1834–49. Sir
William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th bt., M.P., 1849–69. 3rd Baron
Northwick, 1871–82: his wife/wid., 1882–93. No. 9 (formerly
127), Viscount Castlereagh, later 4th Marquess of Londonderry,
1842–6. Sir John H. Lowther, 2nd bt., M.P., 1847–66: Sir
Charles Lowther, 3rd bt., 1866–9. No. 11 (formerly 126),
Thomas Bowlby, M.P., 1755–95: his wid., 1795–1813. No. 13
(formerly 125), Sir Chaloner Ogle, Adm. of the Fleet, 1745–50:
his son-in-law, 4th Baron Kingston, 1751–61. Lady Ryder, wid.
of Sir Dudley Ryder, kt., 1762–74: her son, latterly 1st Baron
Harrowby, 1774–1803. Lord Morpeth, later 9th Earl of Carlisle,
1805–26. Dr. Robert Ferguson, physician-accoucheur to Queen
Victoria, 1849–65. Gen. William Campbell, 1866–7.
The later history of the site of these houses is described
under Park Lane on pages 266–8.
Former houses on the site of Fountain House
Former houses on the site of Fountain House (Plate 73d). Like those on the site of Aldford House, these
were built in the early 1740's, following an agreement of
1739 with Thomas Skeat, bricklayer, and Richard Teage,
carpenter; (ref. 56) and they too were quickly inhabited by a good
class of tenant because of their fine position. The six
houses which fronted only upon Park Street were
numbered 15–25 (odd) from 1866, and mostly had bowed
backs to the park.
At the northern end, facing Mount Street, where the
corner site had been occupied by the Duke of Gloucester
public house, rebuilding was undertaken by William Skeat
in about 1829–31 (see page 318). Much later, in 1919–21, a
short-lived but interesting rebuilding took place at the
southern end. General reconstruction of the whole range
was already being mooted when Cuthbert Heath, an
insurance magnate, began negotiations with the Grosvenor
Board in 1915 with a view to erecting a new house on a
substantial site at the corner of Park Street and Aldford
Street. This was allowed, but Edmund Wimperis, the
estate surveyor, was disposed to criticize the first design of
Heath's architect, George Crawley, thinking the elevations
'a mixture of Mr. Beit's [Aldford House] and Willett's
buildings in Park Street [Nos. 44–50]'. During prolonged
negotiations, Detmar Blow for the first time intervened
unexpectedly in the architectural business of the estate,
and Wimperis expressed further doubts 'as to Mr.
Crawley's capacity to deal with a London house'. But the
plans were finally approved and building work on No. 15
Aldford Street, as it was called, began in 1919 and was
completed by 1921, Trollope and Colls being the
contractors. (ref. 57) The result was a regular neo-Georgian house
of three main storeys with an attic; because of the shortage
of bricks it was stone-faced over a core of concrete blocks
on all three sides, and the entrance was from Aldford
Street (Plate 73d). Crawley was said to have taken 'infinite
pains over the details', which included much wrought
ironwork, some French-made boiseries in the drawing
room, and a wooden staircase with elaborate newels. (ref. 58)
Neither this nor any of the other houses in the block
could long withstand the rapid transition of Park Lane
after 1918, and they were all demolished for the building of
Fountain House in 1935–8.
Occupants include: corner house (formerly 15 Chapel
Street), Col. Robert Brudenell, M.P., 1759–65. George Townshend, M.P., later 1st Marquess Townshend, 1766–9. Maurice
Suckling, M.P., Comptroller of the Navy, 1769–78. 2nd Viscount
Maynard, 1786–8. 2nd Earl of Mornington, 1789–91. Lord
Robert Spencer, M.P., son of 3rd Duke of Marlborough, 1800–4.
No. 15 (formerly 124), 10th Earl of Cassillis, 1776–83. 7th Earl of
Cork, 1784–6. Eliot Thomas Yorke, M.P., 1849–83. No. 17
(formerly 123), Sir Thomas Head, bt., 1753–79. Richard Ford,
author and critic, 1849–58. No. 19 (formerly 122), 22nd Earl of
Buchan, 1744–5. Henry Strachey, M.P., 1770–85. Lady Almeria
Carpenter, da. of 1st Earl of Tyrconnel, 1798–1803. 1st Viscount
Pery of Newton-Pery, 1805–6: his wid., 1807–21. Luke White,
bookseller, lottery-office keeper and M.P., said to have 'realised
the largest fortune ever made by trade in Ireland', 1822–4. 2nd
Earl of Durham, 1857–60. 1st Baron Faber, banker, 1902–20.
No. 21 (formerly 121), James White, financier and racehorse
owner, 1921–7. Sir Arthur du Cros, 1st bt., industrialist,
1929–32.
The later history of the site of these houses is described
under Park Lane on pages 268, 269.
Former houses on the site of Grosvenor House.
Ten houses were erected on the southern half of the Park
Street frontage in the late 1730's under sub-leases to
William Saunders, mason, Thomas Seaton, carpenter,
Thomas Skeat, bricklayer, Richard Teage, carpenter, and
Henry Whitaker, brickmaker. (ref. 59) They had fairly shallow
sites not extending to Park Lane, and were generally less
well inhabited than their neighbours to the south. One of
the more notable occupants was the art collector, H. A. J.
Munro, a friend and patron of Turner, who lived at No.
113 (latterly No. 33), and for whom J. B. Papworth
designed alterations to convert the attic into a picture
gallery in 1839. (ref. 60) At the south corner house, numbered 64
Mount Street, a complete rebuilding seems to have taken
place before 1852, for in that year it is mentioned in the
Architectural Publication Society's Dictionary as an
example of the constructional use of 'Atkinson's
Cement'. (ref. 61) All ten houses were demolished for the
expansion of Grosvenor House garden during the
nineteenth century. (ref. 62)
Occupants include: No. 29 (formerly 115), Lord Henry
Somerset, M.P., son of 8th Duke of Beaufort, 1874–5. No. 31
(formerly 114), Charles Heathcote Tatham, architect, 1802–6.
George Otto Trevelyan, M.P., and historian, 1870–2. No. 33
(formerly 113), H. A. J. Munro, art collector, 1828–c. 1854.
Thomas Hughes, M.P., author of Tom Brown's Schooldays,
1861–70 (later at No. 80).
No. 35 Park Street (demolished).
Between these last
ten houses and the corner house in Upper Grosvenor
Street the frontage remained virtually undeveloped until
1789–90 when a large house with its own stabling and
garden was built here by Lady Frances Harpur, the
recently-bereaved widow of Sir Henry Harpur of Calke
Abbey in Derbyshire. (ref. 63) It is not known who designed this
house, originally No. 107 and latterly No. 35 Park Street,
but the builders were probably Messrs. Gray and
Saunders of Marylebone, who employed the surveyor
George Pepper to measure and cost the plasterer's work
carried out here on their behalf by Humphrey Seager in
1789–90. This had included 353 feet of 'cornice with large
Ionic modilions' and 761 feet of enriched entablature. (ref. 64)
Although No. 35 had its entrance in Park Street (in a
three-storey canted bay) the principal elevation faced
south overlooking the garden and the stable block at the far
end (fig. 55 on page 244). This south-facing elevation was
originally flat but later a ground-floor bow was added. (ref. 65) In
photographs the front appears wholly stuccoed with a
handsome verandah across the whole width at first-floor
level.
In c. 1910 the house was acquired by Baron Bruno
Schröder, a financier of foreign extraction who took British
nationality on the outbreak of war in 1914. (ref. 66) Schröder held
the house under a lease originally granted to Lord Robert
Grosvenor at a nominal rent of £5 per annum which did
not expire until 1944, and when the site of No. 35 was
required for the redevelopment of Grosvenor House in the
1920's he refused to give it up. (ref. 67) Despite a lawyer's opinion
that with building going on all around he would not wish to
stay there, (ref. 68) Schröder remained in the house until his
death in 1943 (ref. 69) with the walls of the uncompleted
Grosvenor House looming above him (Plate 63b).
When the lease expired in 1944 nothing could be done
because of the war, and afterwards planning permission for
the completion of Grosvenor House and demolition of No.
35 was not granted until 1956. (ref. 70) Photographs taken at that
time show that the interior had been considerably
altered. (ref. 71)
Occupants include: Lady Frances Harpur, wid. of Sir Henry
Harpur, 6th bt., 1791–1801. 4th Viscount Midleton, 1802–27.
Lord Robert Grosvenor, latterly 1st Baron Ebury, 1837–93.
William Dalziel Mackenzie, barrister and landowner, 1895–1901.
Col. Thomas E. Vickers, landowner, 1902–5. 2nd Duke of
Abercorn, 1906–8. Baron Bruno Schröder, financier, 1910–43.
Nos. 37–43 (odd)
Nos. 37–43 (odd) form a partially stone-fronted range
of five large houses with return fronts to Upper Grosvenor
Street and Culross Street (Plate 46b in vol. XXXIX).
Designed by W. D. Caröe for the contractors Higgs and
Hill, they were erected in 1908–11, replacing houses and
stables originally developed in the 1730's. (ref. 72) In Park Street
the former houses had been mostly inhabited by tradesmen
and shopkeepers, (ref. 73) and when redevelopment of the site
was first discussed in 1902 Eustace Balfour, the estate
surveyor, recognising the commercial character of this part
of the street, had suggested building 'One fairly good
house' and five shops. (ref. 74) No more was heard of this,
however, and in 1907 negotiations began with Higgs and
Hill to build a range of high-class houses. (ref. 75)
Although willing to undertake the development, Higgs
and Hill were determined to avoid a repetition of their
unhappy experience at Nos. 2–12 Park Street in
1897–1901, where they had worked under an architect
chosen by the Estate; and without reference to the Board
they asked Frederick E. Williams to produce plans. This in
itself gave offence and when Williams' plans proved
'unsatisfactory' an already delicate situation became, in
Balfour's words, 'extremely difficult'. (ref. 76) Eventually Higgs
and Hill were persuaded to submit a list of architects with
whom they would be prepared to work. It contained ten
names: five were struck out by the Board, including at
their own request, Balfour and his partner Thackeray
Turner, and from the five remaining the builders chose
W. D. Caröe. (fn. b)
(ref. 77) The Board told Higgs and Hill that 'the
general style of the whole block must be quiet classic' with
'brown Portland stone' elevations along the Upper
Grosvenor Street frontage and the southern part of the
return to Park Street. (ref. 78)
Caröe submitted his designs in March 1908 and, after
revision, they were approved in July. (ref. 79) (A perspective
drawing which he had prepared for submission to the
Duke was ordered to be framed and hung in the Grosvenor
Office. (ref. 80) ) The site was cleared in the autumn, (ref. 81) and the new
houses were completed between 1910 and 1911. (ref. 82) Though
a purchaser was soon found for the stone-faced house with
an entrance at No. 14 Upper Grosvenor Street, there was
no great demand for the houses, and the others sold at the
rate of about one a year, No. 43 apparently remaining
unoccupied until 1917. (ref. 83) Higgs and Hill claimed that they
had 'spent much more than they wished' on the development in order to meet 'the requirement of Mr Caroe with
regard to decoration'. (ref. 82)
In accordance with the requirement of the Board the
range is stone fronted at its southern end, but whether the
style adopted can be called 'quiet classic' is another matter;
one modern critic has described it as 'rather wildly
Baroque'. (ref. 84) It is certainly a vigorous amalgam of elements
drawn from a wide variety of sources: English seventeenth
century for the lower tier of dormer windows, French
Beaux Arts for the stone elevations and a dash of Flemish
mannerism in the porches, particularly that at No. 14
Upper Grosvenor Street, now removed; but the dominant
influence is perhaps Danish. The combination of big
segmental pediments and a steep slated mansard roof
recalls Laurids Thurah's royal hunting lodge of c. 1734,
the Hermitage at Dyrehaven, just north of Copenhagen. (ref. 85)
A Danish precedent seems less improbable when it is
remembered that Caröe was himself the son of a Dane who
had settled in Liverpool as Danish consul there (a post still
retained by the Caröe family) and that according to an
obituarist 'his interest in things Scandinavian was …
immense'. (ref. 86)
The most interesting feature of the Park Street elevation
is its self-conscious ambiguity, epitomising the Edwardian
preoccupation with breaking the architectural tyranny of
the traditional London terrace. The composition can be
read as two conjoined pavilions as well as a single terraced
unit. The continuity is expressed in the even fenestration,
uniform detailing, and the unbroken cornice; while the
break in the mansard roof, the bridged gap at second-and
third-floor levels and the change from Portland stone to
red brick between Nos. 37 and 39 all help to divide the
group into two separate parts. The detail throughout is of
the high quality to be expected of an architect working
under Arts and Crafts influence, particularly the carved
stonework of the porches and pediments and the ironwork
of the area railings. The interiors, though less original than
the outside, are richly appointed in fashionable variations
of the 'Louis XVI' and 'early Georgian' styles with
handsome joinery, chimneypieces and plasterwork.
Upper Brook Feilde: Nos. 45–49 (odd) Park Street and 43 Upper Brook Street.
This is the second and
largest of the three ranges of flats at this important corner,
and was built in 1926–7 (Plate 49b in vol. XXXIX). The
architects were Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie working
for Sir Laurence Philipps (later first Baron Milford), and
the builders were Walter Lawrence and Son. (ref. 87) The main
elevation faces Park Street, where giant Corinthian
columns built into projections at either end of the front
combine with some classical detailing over the entrance to
break up the bulk of the building, which has seven storeys
above ground. The side elevations to Upper Brook Street
and Culross Street are less formal but incorporate modest
projections. The materials are red bricks with copious
stone dressings.
Upper Feilde: No. 71 Park Street
Upper Feilde: No. 71 Park Street (Plate 49a in vol.
XXXIX). This large range of flats at the north-west corner of
Upper Brook Street and Park Street was the first of three
inter-war blocks designed for this intersection by the firm
of Edmund Wimperis, the estate surveyor. As early as 1913
Wimperis and Simpson were briefed to rebuild the
southern part of the site on behalf of A. C. F. Hill, but war
intervened. (ref. 88) When the project was resurrected, the whole
site up to Wood's Mews was thrown in, and in 1922–4
Higgs and Hill undertook the present building. It is a
thoughtful example of the neo-Georgian style as applied to
flats, having bow windows to Upper Brook Street and
pilasters and small gables towards Park Street. The ground
storey is of Portland stone, the upper parts of red Daneshill
bricks with delicate blue diapering. There were originally
just fifteen ample flats, each fully decorated. (ref. 89)
Nos. 91–103A (odd) Park Street and No. 48 Green Street
Nos. 91–103A (odd) Park Street and No. 48 Green Street (Plate 52d). This long range was designed by
Wimperis and Simpson in 1913, but partly because of the
intervention of the war of 1914–18 its building history was
long and complicated and the last houses were not finished
until 1925. No doubt largely as a result of this long delay
the range is not entirely symmetrical despite the superficial
impression created of a uniform façade in a brick style
harking back to the late Wren manner of Morden College.
There are differences in the dormer windows, in the
position and types of doorways, and even in the colour of
the brickwork between No. 95, the first to be built, and the
remaining houses.
Originally George Trollope and Sons agreed to take all
of the sites northward of No. 95 as a speculation and had
begun to buy up the existing leases here as early as 1912. (ref. 90)
The three southern sites (Nos. 91–95) were contracted for
by individuals who were not themselves builders. (ref. 91)
Trollopes began work on their plot but a builders' strike
and the outbreak of war soon stopped them. (ref. 92) Only at No.
95, where the builders were Foxleys for Herbert Marzetti,
a stock-jobber, was substantial progress made and by 1916
Marzetti had moved into the finished house, which stood
alone with boarded-up sites on each side for several years (ref. 93)
(Plate 50c). In 1919 Trollopes recommenced work on their
site and in the following year Wimperis and Simpson
applied on their behalf to the London County Council for
permission to construct the doorways and distinctive
canopies in wood, reproducing 'a very excellent example of
an old carved bracket … suitable to the style in which the
new houses have been designed'. (ref. 94) No. 95 also has a
wooden canopy over the doorway but Nos. 91 and 93 do
not. Here the original takers dropped out and building was
eventually begun in 1921 by W. J. Maddison of the
Minories for Lieutenant-Colonel Franklin Thomasson,
J.P., who was the first occupant of No. 91. (ref. 95) At No. 93
Holliday and Greenwood carried out alterations before the
house was occupied in 1925. (ref. 96)
The earlier houses on this site were erected in the late
1730's and early 1740's in front of the complex of stabling
which the architect Roger Morris had built in 1738 for the
Second Troop of Horse Guards (see page 185). The stables
were approached through an arched passageway from Park
Street, and north and south of this Morris organized the
building of twelve houses with approximately eighteenfoot frontages. He himself was the lessee of several of these
houses, (ref. 97) and some of his associates were prominent
craftsmen of the day including John Deval, mason, (ref. 98) and
Isaac Mansfield, plasterer, son of the Isaac Mansfield who
worked at several buildings designed by James Gibbs. (ref. 99)
One of these houses, which was built partly over the
entrance to the Guards' stables, was leased to, and
occupied by, Robert Morris, the kinsman of Roger, who
wrote several important architectural tracts; his house
stood on the site of the present No. 97 Park Street and he
lived there from 1739 until his death in 1754. (ref. 100)
Occupants include: No. 91, 2nd Earl of Inchcape, 1936–9. No.
93, Sir Louis Bernhard Baron, 1st bt., tobacco and cigarette
manufacturer, 1931–4 (formerly at No. 57 Green Street). No. 99,
12th Earl of Lindsay, 1933–9. No. 101, Viscount Castlereagh,
M.P., later 8th Marquess of Londonderry, 1934–41. No. 103, Sir
Robert Vansittart, K.C.B., later 1st Baron Vansittart, diplomat,
1925–31. No. 103A, 4th Baron Inverclyde, 1930–3.
Nos. 105–115 (odd) Park Street
Nos. 105–115 (odd) Park Street see page 188.