Description

1900/0/10301 ROBERT ADAM STREET
08-JUL-02 7-11

GV II

7 - 11 Robert Adam Street. Five terrace houses on the Portman Estate, c.1780. Stock brick fronts, ground floors to Nos.8-11 rendered; York Stone cills and coping; slate roofs.
EXTERIORS: Nos.7-9 each three windows wide: No.7 with door to right, others with central doors; Nos.10-11 each of two bays with doors to left. Sash windows mainly replaced with plate glass. Front areas with cast iron railings.
No.7: aedicular surrounds to ground and first floor windows, fanlight over front door. Depressed arch of moulded stone springing from imposts at second floor level. Upper part of front formerly with pediment containing roundel of lion: dismantled in 1950s when parapet lowered to present level, and westerly neighbour demolished necessitating rebuilding of flank wall.
No.8: arched door opening to centre; Regency 'Cottingham' cast iron balconies to first floor windows.
No.9: Queen Anne Revival door hood with carved wooden brackets.
No.10: arched door surround with rusticated quoins, probably of Coade stone.
No.11: arched door surround.
Rear elevations to Baker's Mews are very varied:
No.7: late Georgian/early Victorian outbuilding to rear.
No.8: early C20 mews building over garages, now 15 Baker's Mews and not included in list description.
No.9: tall late Victorian/Edwardian three storey building with stone mullion and transom windows to first floor, Venetian window to second floor incorporating stained glass panels, said to be a former chapel.
Nos.10-11: late Georgian mews buildings with garage opening to No.10.
INTERIORS: not inspected, but a survey of 2001 reports the survival of numerous features, of which the following are a selection:
No.7: largely unaltered. Adamesque chimneypiece in ground floor front room with slips of Brocatello marble and a frieze embellished with husk rinceaux; elaborate plasterwork to walls with classical figures, urns, sphinxes, garlands and paterae; cupboards, dado and skirting. Panelled Ground floor rear room with chimneypiece flanked with fluted pilasters; panelled door, skirting, dado, plaster cornice. Panelled partitions, open-string staircase with square rails, decorated tread-ends. Some fireplaces on upper floors.
No.8: not surveyed; recently adapted for office use.
No.9: retains staircase, some plasterwork, panelling and fireplaces.
No.10: retains staircase and joinery on upper floors.
No.11: retains staircase, otherwise altered.
HISTORY: these houses are all that remain from the former Adam Street (which became Robert Adam Street in 1938; the architect had nothing to do with this development). They stand on part of the Portman Estate which was laid out in the late 1770S: the street is first listed in the rate books in 1780 and is first shown on an estate plan of that date but it was not marked on a plan of 1777. The row originally extended further west but this party was demolished in c.1950 when the north entrance to Baker's Mews was cut through.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27086008

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990