Mount Street and Charles Street before Rebuilding
Mount Street was the longest uninterrupted east-west
thoroughfare laid out on the Grosvenor estate (Plate 88b:
see also Plate 8e in vol. XXXIX). Like Mount Row and the
Mount Coffee House in Grosvenor Street, it took its name
from Mount Field, which lay around a modest earthwork
called Oliver's Mount; this was said to be a remnant of
Civil War fortifications and rose close to the present west
corner of Mount Row with Carpenter Street, where the
Oliver's Mount public house was to be established. (ref. 1)
So long a street was naturally divided up into a large
number of different building 'takes' of varying size.
Development continued over about twenty years from
1720 and appears chiefly to have been in the hands of
building tradesmen who also worked elsewhere on the
estate. Most of the houses had quite narrow fronts and
were of three storeys above ground plus garrets. There are
some indications that shops were from the first concentrated to the east of South Audley Street, but they were
certainly not excluded (as is now the case) from the western
section of Mount Street stretching through to Park Lane.
The pattern of small, irregular houses mostly having
workshops or stables behind was broken on the south side
between South Audley Street and the present cul-de-sac in
front of the Farm Street Church. Here the freehold of one
and a half acres of back land behind this part of the street,
abutting on the Berkeley estate, was sold by Sir Richard
Grosvenor in 1723 to the 'Fifty Churches' Commissioners
for use as a burial ground for the new church of St. George,
Hanover Square. (ref. 2) In front of this ground, on leasehold
land now chiefly occupied by No. 103 Mount Street, was
erected the parish workhouse, built to a plan prepared by
Benjamin Timbrell and Thomas Phillips in 1725–6 (ref. 3) (Plate
88a). (fn. a) This plain, well-ventilated building, of some 160
feet in frontage to the street, included on the ground floor a
working room in the centre and dining-rooms and charity
schools for either sex in the wings, with living space for
between 150 and 200 persons in two storeys above, and a
simple cupola over the middle. As it was considered 'a
Model worthy of the Imitation of other Places', its plan
and elevation were engraved and printed with a note that
'such a building … may be built in any Part of the
Kingdom with Wood, Stone or Brick'. (ref. 5)
Enlargements of the workhouse soon became necessary,
the first one occurring in 1743. (ref. 6) In 1772, when some six
hundred paupers were said to be inhabiting the buildings,
'Numbers of them lying three and four in a Bed',
additional rooms were erected at a cost of £800 to a plan by
Charles Little, surveyor, (ref. 7) but these hardly alleviated the
problems. In 1784–5 efforts were vainly made to secure
a new site for the workhouse. In the event the Vestry
decided to acquire additional premises for lunatics and
children at Little Chelsea and to reconstruct and enlarge
the Mount Street workhouse in stages. This duly occurred
between 1786 and 1788 to the designs of William Porden,
who had since 1785 been the Vestry surveyor. He also
undertook the joiner's work in the enlargement himself, a
fact which together with his powerful position as surveyor
to Earl Grosvenor roused the opposition of a committee of
ratepayers among whom the architect Henry Holland was
prominent. They protested against Porden's 'appearing in
the different character of Measurer, Assessor of the Poor
Rate, Surveyor, Joiner, workman, Agent for purchases and
the only referree [sic] of complaints against his own
miserable Rate, and whose knowledge and experience on
the different points could only have been gained by being
paymaster in Lord Sheffield's Regiment and a copying
clerk, in the office of an architect'. (ref. 8)
The appearance of the workhouse after reconstruction is
not recorded. It seems to have been heightened all round,
while the front and back courtyards were filled in; this
centre part included 'plaster floors' supplied by John
Papworth, like those at the St. Marylebone workhouse. At
the west end, additional space was taken to build a watchhouse with premises over, and here the Vestry met
regularly from this time until 1886. The watch-house was
the chief object of aggression during riots of June 1792 in
Mount Street. (ref. 9) Subsequent alterations at the workhouse
appear to have included the formation of a chapel at the
eastern end of the burial ground, and other changes may
well have been made by the time of its demolition in 1886.
By the end of the eighteenth century the different
portions of Mount Street had begun to establish their own
identity. On the north side in particular, where there was
good access to the back premises from Mount Row,
Bishop's Yard (Plate 88e), Adam's Mews and Reeves
Mews, a number of tradesmen and craftsmen who merit
notice established quite sizeable businesses. Along this
side from east to west at the turn of the century, there were
two masons' yards between Davies Street and Charles
Street, those of John (and previously Robert) Tombling
and of William Storey. (ref. 10) Next door to Storey, at the old
Nos. 13–14 (where the curve into Carlos Place now
begins), flourished from 1785 the very fashionable cabinetmaking and upholstery business of William Marsh and of
his partners and successors George Elward, Thomas
Tatham, Edward Bailey and Richard Saunders. (ref. 11) (fn. b) As the
principal cabinet-makers to George IV this firm worked at
Carlton House and Buckingham Palace and its members
were in large measure the successors to John Linnell, who
had operated from nearby on the north side of Berkeley
Square. (ref. 12) In about 1807–8 their premises, which comprised two houses and a variety of workrooms and
storerooms including a sawpit, drying places for timber
and veneering rooms, (ref. 13) acquired a new shop front designed
by John Linnell Bond. This lost design (by a refined but
unprolific architect) enjoyed in its time a special réclame as
the 'first shop front, acknowledged to have been worthy
the name of architecture, and from which we may date the
origin of all the expense and splendour that has succeeded,
in adorning the houses of business … Of this magnificent
shop front, we had to regret in our respect for the fame of
the architect, that it was almost lost, from its situation in a
street so little frequented.' (ref. 14) Nevertheless the front may
not have worked entirely to the advantage of the
proprietors, for when the lease was renewed in 1814 a fine
of nearly £6,000 was charged, although the shops
themselves consisted of what Bond called 'buildings of
such a slight and precarious nature'. (ref. 15) Members and
associates of the firm also occupied the nearby No. 11
Mount Street (old numbering) between 1801 and 1821. (ref. 11)
Still on the north side, a few doors further west came the
junction of Mount Street with Charles Street, which led
quickly through to Grosvenor Square and had a handful of
houses in its southern half. Though these houses were
mostly private, in 1815 Francis Grillon set up a hotel here
which was the ancestor of the modern Connaught and
which by 1820 occupied three houses on the west side of
Charles Street. (ref. 11) Opposite at No. 5 Charles Street, Josiah
Wedgwood briefly had his first West End premises at the
sign of 'The Queen's Arms', in fact no more than two
rooms rented between 1766 and 1768 from a shoemaker,
John Ivison. (ref. 16) No. 6 was taken by John Ruskin for the
Season in 1853, at the time he was writing the third volume
of The Stones of Venice. (ref. 17)
The northern side of Mount Street between Charles
Street and South Audley Street was devoted chiefly to
trade, the section opposite the workhouse being referred to
in 1818 as 'the worst part of Mount Street'. (ref. 18) Nevertheless
there was one considerable set of premises here, the houses
and workshops occupied by the sculptors Westmacott and
then by the cabinet-maker Thomas Dowbiggin and his
successors, Holland and Sons. They were all preceded by a
less well-known but significant Georgian cabinet-maker,
John Whitby, who lived and worked here between about
1738 and 1769, having for a couple of years previously
occupied premises close by. The Westmacotts took over
Whitby's shops somewhat later, but enjoyed a long
connexion with Mount Street, dating back to 1773 when a
Thomas Westmacott was first rated for a house here. (ref. 11)
Richard Westmacott the elder, the first member of the
family to take up sculpture, inhabited Whitby's old
premises at No. 25 Mount Street (approximately on the
site of the modern No. 10) from 1782 until his death in
1808, when he was succeeeded by his son Henry
Westmacott. Next door at No. 24 another son, the future
Sir Richard, lived separately from 1797. The brothers
continued at these addresses until about 1818 when,
finding their premises too small, Richard transferred his
house and works to No. 14 South Audley Street and his
brother moved elsewhere. (ref. 19) During their tenancy there
were extensive workshops behind connected to the houses
and entered from a yard off Adam's Mews, but at about the
time that the Westmacotts moved away Nos. 24 and 25
were substantially rebuilt and separated from the back
premises. (ref. 20) The workshops were taken over in 1819 by the
well-known upholsterer and cabinet-maker Thomas
Dowbiggin, who for the previous four years had occupied
relatively small premises on the south side (on the site of
the modern No. 128 Mount Street), with workrooms some
distance away in Street's Buildings. (ref. 21) Dowbiggin now
moved his shop into No. 23 Mount Street, in which the
Westmacotts had had an interest and which was also
rebuilt at about this time with a classical front; and in
1821–2 he took thirty-one-year leases of Nos. 23–26 (most
of which were sub-let) and a longer lease of the workshops
behind. (ref. 22) When the shorter leases ran out, Dowbiggin was
obliged by the Estate to refront Nos. 24–26, for which
Thomas Cundy II produced characteristic elevations for
turning the three houses into two. These were duly
executed in 1853 by the firm of Holland and Sons, which
from 1851 was involved in the business of Dowbiggin (who
died in 1854). Though the names of both firms continued
at these addresses for some years, Hollands were now preeminent and remained in business in Mount Street until
1960. (ref. 23)
The rest of old Mount Street seems not to have boasted
business concerns of quite the same size, except for John
Robson's coach manufactory at the north-west corner with
South Audley Street, with workshops in Reeves Mews. (ref. 24)
There were however assorted taverns and eating houses.
At the door of one such coffee house the poet Shelley
waited in order to elope with Harriet Westbrook of Chapel
Street early one morning in August 1811, exclaiming to his
accomplice as he flung the shells of oysters on which he had
breakfasted across the street, 'Grove, this is a Shelley
business'. (ref. 25) To the west of South Audley Street, as has
been said, more of the houses were confined to domestic
use, and close to the park the neighbourhood was quite
fashionable. At the north-east corner with Park Street (the
site of the present No. 54 Mount Street) a discreet private
hotel was established, probably by Michael Lemm in
1828; at first known as Lemm's Hotel but from 1840 as the
Grosvenor Hotel, it had for a time an extension almost
opposite, on the west side of Park Street. (ref. 24)
On the north side of Mount Street there was only one house west of Park
Street, the rest of the frontage up to Park Lane being taken
up by the end of the garden to Grosvenor House.
On the south side of Mount Street towards the west end,
a number of rebuildings took place in the 1820's and
1830's. A major operator here was William Skeat (father of
the philologist), whose claim to undertake redevelopment
was admitted by the Estate in 1820, 'his Ancestors having
built a considerable part of the adjoining Houses': (ref. 26) this
doubtless refers to Thomas Skeat. At this date William
Skeat's own premises comprised a large irregular dwelling
(No. 65 Mount Street) with sheds and an ice-house beyond
to the west at the corner of Park Lane. (ref. 27) It was eventually
agreed that so long as he lowered these sheds so as to make
them invisible from Grosvenor House, he could erect a
short range of three new houses (originally Nos. 65–67
consec.) between Park Lane and Park Street. (ref. 28) This range
was built in about 1829–31, and towards Mount Street had
a stucco ground floor and brick upper storeys with Ionic
pilasters at the ends, rather in the manner of some of
Cubitt's work in Bloomsbury (Plates 73d, 88c: see also
Plate 23b in vol. XXXIX). Skeat soon let No. 66, the middle
house, which was taken in 1832 by William Brougham,
brother of the Lord Chancellor and himself later second
Lord Brougham, but the smaller house nearest the park
(No. 65) remained empty for several years. (ref. 11) From about
1835 Skeat's workshops to the west of No. 65 were in the
hands of the builder John Elger who converted part of
them into stables for General (Sir) Henry Wyndham,
Brougham's successor at No. 66 from 1838. In that year
Wyndham ran Nos. 65 and 66 together, and this double
house with a fine view over the park was usually known
subsequently as No. 66. Between 1864 and 1875 George J.
Goschen, M.P., lived here; (ref. 29) after he left, in 1875, an open
portico was added by the architects Joseph and Pearson. (ref. 30)
Less is known about the next-door house, No. 67 Mount
Street, which Skeat retained for his own occupation until
1838, but photographs of 1913 show that a new tenant,
Eustace Pandia Ralli, had just installed rich woodwork and
fine carpets on the first floor. (ref. 31) All three houses, having
survived the first Duke's rebuildings, disappeared with the
construction of Fountain House in 1935–8.
East of Park Street, Skeat also rebuilt Nos. 70 and 71
Mount Street with stables behind in 1831–2. (ref. 32) The
elevation of No. 70 was similar to that of its western
neighbour, a house rebuilt at the same time by Wright
Ingle, (ref. 33) suggesting that Skeat and Ingle were required to
adhere to a uniform elevation. Somewhat further east,
between Street's Buildings and Portugal Street, the Three
Compasses public house was reconstructed quite grandly
on an enlarged site in 1853–4, with elevations by Thomas
Cundy II, (ref. 34) while between Portugal Street and South
Audley Street, Thomas Oliver may have carried out some
rebuildings in 1822 as part of his improvements hereabouts. (ref. 35)
Between South Audley Street and Davies Street the low
status of the old houses on the south side of Mount Street
was governed by the proximity of the workhouse and their
own lack of depth, since the burial ground and the
boundary of the Grosvenor estate came close behind. One
exception was a large house set well back from the street to
the east of the workhouse, and accessible only from a long
covered entrance passage. Numbered 108 on Horwood's
map of 1792 it was later known as No. 111 Mount Street.
Though mainly on Grosvenor land, it enjoyed a sizeable
garden and by 1811 also a two-storey octagonal extension
on the Berkeley estate. (ref. 36) Only the plan is known of this
ample house, which had been built in about 1724–5 by
John Elkins, bricklayer, and by him assigned to Samuel
Nociter; its later residents included John Conyers,
esquire, (1776–1811) and Sir George Philips, M.P.,
(1813–45). (ref. 37) When the Farm Street Catholic Church was
built in 1844–9 it abutted to its east on the garden and
octagon of this house, which was subsequently acquired
for the accommodation of Jesuits, and its site is now filled
by the Farm Street Presbytery at No. 114 Mount Street.
One or two houses further east were of fair quality, but
the only one of real note on this side of Mount Street was at
its extreme eastern end, at the corner with Davies Street.
The building lease for this house was granted to Francis
Commins, mason, in 1732, (ref. 38) but Commins died shortly
afterwards and in 1735 his widow granted a sub-lease of
the still unfinished house to Thomas How, upholsterer. (ref. 39)
Although numbered in Mount Street until c. 1840, the
house fortuitously acquired a fine southward aspect over
Berkeley Square when that square was laid out in the
1740's, and it was eventually given the more prestigious
address of No. 34 Berkeley Square. This was because the
west side of the square at its northernmost point was set
back some forty feet from the entrance to Davies Street,
thus turning what had been the back of the easternmost
plot in Mount Street into a forty-foot 'frontage' to the
square, an effect which has now been entirely lost by the
widening of the roadway at the junction of Mount Street,
Berkeley Square and Davies Street.
The location of the house clearly made it one of the most
desirable on the estate and this is reflected in its
inhabitants. Of the first occupant from 1736 to 1751,
Madame D'Acunha, nothing is known, but she was
followed by the Hon. George Compton who became sixth
Earl of Northampton in 1754. The Earl died in 1758 and
in 1761 his widow married Claudius Amyand, son of the
serjeant-surgeon to George II and himself a placeman and
former M.P. Robert or James Adam produced a design for
a very elaborate enclosed porch for this house for Amyand
(Plate 15c in vol. XXXIX) but it is not known whether it was
ever executed. Amyand died in 1774 and in the following
year Lady Northampton, as she was still known, sold the
house to Lady Mary Coke, daughter of the second Duke of
Argyll and an inveterate diarist and letter-writer. (ref. 40)
Lady Mary was 'perfectly satisfied' with her new house
although she thought the purchase of it would make her
'extremely poor'. (ref. 41) Nevertheless in 1780 Lancelot (Capability) Brown and Henry Holland undertook a major
remodelling of the interior, after which she pronounced
herself 'much pleased with my little Apartment'. (ref. 42) She
retained the house until her death in 1811. Succeeding
occupants were the second Earl of Abergavenny, 1812–43;
his son, the third Earl, 1843–5; and Sir Charles Wetherell,
a former Attorney General, 1845–6.
On Wetherell's death in 1846 his widow sold the house
to Samuel Pratt, an upholsterer of New Bond Street, (ref. 43) who
converted it into two houses. A complete rebuilding does
not seem to have taken place, but very extensive alterations
were made to the designs of the architect Thomas Little.
The two new houses shared a common elevation to
Berkeley Square and here Little dressed them in the full
Italianate manner with porticoes, columns, pediments,
balconies and a deep bracketed cornice. (ref. 44) The easternmost
house, which did not have an entrance in the square, was at
first numbered in Mount Street but this was quickly
changed to 33 Berkeley Square, while the western of the
two was numbered 34 Berkeley Square. Admiral Lord
Colchester, the second Baron, lived in the latter house
from 1856 until his death there in 1867.
The newly converted houses had a relatively short life,
however, for in 1879 they were demolished and a large part
of their site was thrown into the roadway at a new junction
between the north-west corner of Berkeley Square and
Mount Street (see page 329).