21 St Martins

21 St Martins

This Grade II* listed building is a former house built in the early 18th century and extended in the 19th century, now in office use.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and a wood eaves cornice. It has a steeply-pitched M-profile hipped roof with slate covering and substantial red brick chimneysstacks.

The main house is rectangular on plan, three storeys in height, with five symmetrical bays facing south onto St Martins. The front elevation features five bays of tall segmental-arched windows containing exposed moulded cases and four-over-four pane timber sash windows; the second floor has two-over-four pane sash windows. At the centre is a classical doorcase with fluted pilasters, Doric frieze, segmental modillion pediment, elliptical-headed margined fanlight, and flush panelled door.

The west elevation has four window bays, two of which are blocked on the second and ground floors, and one on the first floor. A single-bay perpendicular projection extends to the east side of the rear elevation, containing windows with six-over-six pane and eight-over-eight pane timber sash windows.

A large 19th-century rectangular-plan extension extends to the rear with a pitched slate roof gabled to the east and west, featuring a central rectangular lantern. The west gable has a tall red-brick chimneystack, a segmental-arched window opening with square-headed casements, and a square-headed door opening containing recessed 20th-century glazed doors.

The interior of the original house retains significant 18th-century features throughout. The entrance hall contains fluted Ionic pilasters flanking the doorway, a modillion cornice, and moulded door surrounds with panelled doors. This leads to a stair hall with a modillion cornice, panelled walls, and an 18th-century open-string staircase featuring original fluted-column newel posts, turned balusters, scrolled brackets, and a moulded handrail that terminates with a volute at ground floor and rises with a goosenesk at each half-landing and landing. A round-headed arch flanked by fluted pilasters adjoins the stair to the right.

The north-west ground-floor room retains wall panelling, classical cornice, window shutters, and a classical fire surround with fluted pilasters, modillion frieze, and plain marble and cast-iron fireplace. A former exterior passage between 19a and 21 St Martins, east of the ground-floor rooms, has been infilled with two 20th-century WCs.

The half-landing between ground and first floor features a round-arched stair window with coloured-glass margin. The half-landing between first and second floor has a moulded elliptical-headed arch; each half-landing provides access to a toilet to the north-west and a room in the north-east projection, retaining plain panelled doors and cast-iron fireplaces.

Wall panelling continues throughout the stair halls of the first and second floors, with moulded classical door surrounds and panelled doors throughout. The first-floor landing has three classical door surrounds to the east, south and west, with a canted wall to the south door leading to an antechamber and suite of rooms. The antechamber has two classical door surrounds with broken triangular pediments to the east and west rooms, and one round-arched door surround with fluted pilasters to a room to the east. The south-west first-floor room retains a plain classical marble fireplace; the north-west room retains wall panelling.

The second floor has a modillion cornice and three classical door surrounds, two to the east and one to the west, each with a classical cornice. The south-west room retains a cast-iron fireplace with plain moulded surround and integrated cupboards either side.

The basement, accessed from the north side of the ground floor to the rear of the main stair, is brick-vaulted and brick-lined. The 19th-century rear extension has two queen-post trusses, a cast-iron column, and painted-brick walls. It features two large fireplaces on the west wall, one larger than the other, in white glazed-brick surrounds.