73 Harley Street, City of Westminster, London

Summary

House, later medical consulting rooms, of 1905 in Edwardian Renaissance style by William Henry White on the site of an earlier terraced house of circa 1773.

Description

House, later medical consulting rooms, of 1905 in Edwardian Renaissance style by William Henry White on the site of an earlier terraced house of circa 1773.

MATERIALS: the Harley Street frontage is of red brick in Flemish bond with stone dressings and cast iron railings and flower guards to the first floor. The rear elevation is faced with glazed tiles. The roof is concealed behind a parapet.

PLAN: four storeys with attics and basement and three bays. The principal floors have a well staircase to the south, a large room to the north-east and a smaller room to the north-west.

EXTERIOR: the Harley Street elevation has a curved gable with a stone coping and kneelers, oculus and a four-light window. The third floor has three elliptical-headed sash windows with keystones and eared architraves and stone bands and quoins. The lower floors have a curved triple bay from second to ground floor level with taller sash windows to the first and ground floors and balconnettes to the first floor windows. There is a further bay on the north side of the second and first floors with sash windows and a balconnette at first floor level. Below the entrance has a stone, curved open-pediment supported on engaged Tuscan columns, a half-glazed mahogany door with side lights, fanlights and three steps to street level.

The rear elevation is clad with white glazed tiles and has a canted bay through three floors.

INTERIOR: the Harley Street entrance leads into a vestibule with dado rail and panelling, including a glazed screen with Art Nouveau style metal decoration incorporating a doorcase with broken curved pediment and side-lights. The hall beyond has dado panelling, mahogany doorcases with eared architraves and door furniture, a fireplace with eared architraves and a swag frieze, and a mahogany well staircase with turned balusters and square newel posts rising to the attic where there is a rectangular glazed fanlight with metal decoration. The large front ground floor room retains its dado rail, cornice with ovolo moulding, and has a fire surround with a reeded architrave and coloured tiles.

The larger first floor front room has an Adam style ceiling with wheat ear decoration and painted roundels of later C18 date, probably salvaged from the earlier building on the site, an elaborate cornice, panelled walls with a dado rail, and a marble fire surround with fluted Ionic columns. Another room also has a painted roundel, dado rail and a fire surround with raised panel and pilasters with wheat ear drops.

The second floor retains a cornice and a narrower fire surround with swag and paterae.

The basement has a plainer service flight of stairs with stick balusters and square newel post with a fixed wooden tray support, and retains some original half-glazed room divisions.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: there are attached cast iron area railings with some urn finials and scrollwork decoration.

History

A circa 1773 house was built on this site for its first occupant Henry Perce. It was the site of a celebrated society scandal in 1830 between Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg, a London attache to the Habsburgs, and the married Lady Jane Ellenborough. Between 1854 and 1875 the distinguished Geologist Sir Charles Lyell lived there and between 1876 and 1882 the statesman W E Gladstone. Both are recorded on a Blue Plaque.

In 1905 this house was replaced on the same site by a residential property in English Renaissance Style designed by William Henry White (1862-1949), an architect favoured by the Howard de Walden estate. The building was mentioned in 'The Builder' on the 27 January 1906 and White also gave lectures on 'The Development of the Town House'. There is no change in the footprint of the property on the 1875, 1896 or 1916 25'' Ordnance Survey maps.

In the early C20 the property underwent a gradual change from a middle class town house to medical use as consultation rooms for a number of medical practitioners. These included Walter Jessop (1853-1917) the chief founder of the 'British Journal of Opthalmology' and Sir Neil Farley (1891-1966), important for his research leading to treatment for Blackwater Fever and bacillary dysentery. The building suffered some war
damage in the 1940s but was repaired. Some later partitions have been inserted.

Reasons for Listing

73 Harley Street, a 1905 rebuilding of a 1770s town house by TH White in English Renaissance Style, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: a varied principal elevation in good quality materials, decorative detail and compositional design and good quality interior including mahogany doors, well staircase, glazed screen and skylight with metal decoration and fireplaces, many marble. The first floor ceilings have C18 painted roundels, probably salvaged from the earlier house on the site;
* Degree of survival: the house is little altered externally, internally and in plan form since 1905 and is a good example of an Edwardian Middle Class House;
* Historical interest: the geologist Sir Charles Lyell and statesmen WE Gladstone lived in the former house on the site, and after it changed from residential to medical use a number of eminent medical practitioners worked from the 1905 building, including Walter Jessup and Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley;
* Comparators: No 73 compares well with other late Victorian and Edwardian buildings in the vicinity which are listed and contributes to the lively variety of Victorian and Edwardian designs in Harley Street;
* Group value: part of a group of listed buildings in Harley Street.

External Links

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