Numbers 13-24 And Attached Railings The Diorama, Bedford College Annexe

Numbers 13-24 and the attached railings form a terrace of twelve houses built around 1823-1825 by John Nash, with the northernmost bay forming part of Number 1 St Andrew’s Place. Numbers 13-16 and 20-24 were converted to flats around 1986, resulting in the loss of many original interior features. The houses are constructed with stucco facades and have slated mansard roofs with dormers.

The terrace is symmetrical, with three bays at either end and seven window bays projecting in the centre. The projecting bays are four storeys high, plus basements; the remainder are three storeys high with attics and basements. Each section has three windows. The ground floor features an attached Ionic order supporting an entablature, topped with a continuous cast-iron balcony (the northernmost projection lacks railings). Square-headed doorways have architraves, cornices, pilaster jambs, cornice heads, patterned fanlights (except at numbers 16, 19, 21, and 23), and panelled doors. The sash windows have architraves and some glazing bars. First-floor windows are arcaded with keystones, archivolts, and moulded imposts. A sill band is present on the second floor. A dentil cornice runs along the third floor, above which are attic storeys over the centre and end bays, with balustraded parapets between.

Internally, the houses retain stone stairs with cast-iron, foliated balusters and wreathed wood handrails. Many rooms are panelled, and most feature enriched ceiling cornices and central roundels. A rear ground-floor room in number 24 contains a good vaulted and moulded ceiling, roundels depicting Classical figures, pilasters, and a pedimented mirror above the original fireplace.

Attached cast-iron railings with urn finials define the areas. Number 18 incorporates a three-story polygonal building in brick with stone-capped buttresses, set back in Peto Place. This building was originally the Diorama, a picture show designed by Augustus Charles Pugin. By 1854, it had been converted to a Baptist Chapel, which closed in 1922. The building was subsequently used by the Middlesex Hospital as a rheumatism treatment pool and, at the time of inspection in 1989, housed an arts cooperative.