5, St Martins East

718/3/103 ST MARTINS EAST 05-JAN-50 5

GV II

House, now offices. Adjoins No 3 (qv) and is slightly lower. Early C18. Red brick. Slate roof with gable ends. High plinth. Moulded brick eaves cornice. Brick and stucco band. Three storeys. Three windows, segmental brick arches, sashes with glazing bars, flush casing. Good wood doorcase with fluted pilasters and deeply carved brackets, formed of foliage and cherub's heads, moulded segmental pediment, rectangular fanlight, fielded-panel door. To rear is a wing of mid C19 comprising a flat-roofed lobby link to a high single-storey Conference Room, originally probably a teaching room for a Dancing Academy. This is of brick with buttresses and slate roof with end stack and has 2 4-light windows on north side with further blocked window. INTERIOR of Conference Room has openwork wooden roof, at present partly concealed, consisting of 2 principal-rafter trusses set on moulded corbels with arch braces to collars. Above the present suspended ceiling are 2 butt-purlin collar beam trusses with ogee braces and turned central king posts. Match-boarding to underside of roof. Around the room a dado rail with match-board panelling below. C19 fireplace. HISTORY. During the C19 this house was occupied by 2 teachers of dancing: Charles Smart 1864-70 and Morris Barnett 1870-99 and the mid C19 date of the present Conference Room suggests that it was purpose-built for a Dancing Academy and is thus a very unusual survival. Report on 3/5 St.Martins East by TR Projects, Nov.2001.

Nos 3, 5 and 7 form a group with St Martin's Cathedral Guildhall Lane.

Listing NGR: SK5853604449