Rofe House (Numbers 3 And 4 And 5) And Napolean House (Numbers 6 And 6A)

Rofe House (Numbers 3, 4 and 5) and Napoleon House (Numbers 6 and 6A) comprise a terrace of four houses, now used as houses and flats, built around 1833-37. The design may have been by William Thomas. The houses are constructed of pinkish-red brick in English Garden Wall Bond to the sides and rear, with a painted stucco facade. They have a Welsh slate roof and cast-iron dressings.

The three-storey terrace with a basement has twelve bays, divided into three bays each, with the three left bays projecting. There are twelve first-floor windows. The basement and ground floor have rustication. A first-floor band is present, except at Number 4, and is surmounted by Ionic, Doric, and two sets of Ionic pilasters extending through the first and second floors to the ends of each dwelling.

The windows are primarily French windows; some are plate glass with divided overlights, others have six panes with margin lights and divided overlights, and a few have eight panes with divided overlights, all with margin lights. The second floor has 3/6 sashes with sills, and the windows 4 to 6 have tooled architraves. A frieze, cornice, and blocking course complete the exterior.

Seven steps lead to the entrances below the 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th windows; these entrances consist of six-panel doors with glazed overlights within surrounds of Doric pilasters, friezes, and cornices. Other ground-floor entrances are six-panel doors and two-part glazed doors with decorative panels and overlights containing glazing bars, all set within distyle Roman Doric porches with engaged plain pilasters, a frieze with triglyphs and metopes, and a cornice.

The basement entrances are four-panel doors with overlights with glazing bars, one of which was boarded at the time of inspection. The windows are mainly 8/8 sashes with flat rusticated arches and projecting keystones. A two 1/1 sash, two 8/8 sashes, and a 21-pane round-arched staircase window are also present. Cellars are reputedly located beneath the street. Continuous balconies to the first floor are present on the front facade, shared between the two left dwellings, and between the two right dwellings, with distinctive motifs including circle-and-anthemion, anthemion-and-heart, and heart-circle-and-anthemion uprights.

The interior was not inspected. Napoleon House was the residence of Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later Napoleon III Emperor of the French, who lived here from 1838-1839. Clarendon Square was laid out around 1828 by P.F. Robinson, and the houses were completed around 1832, with gardens planted in 1830.