Numbers 15 And 16 And Attached Railings

A pair of houses forming part of a terrace, built between 1717 and 1718 by Robert Burford, a carpenter, on land granted in 1716. The houses were updated around 1820. They are constructed of brown and yellow brick, with some areas of replacement brickwork on the upper floors. The roofs are hidden behind parapets. Each house has three windows.

The houses are four stories high, with a basement and attic, and are two rooms deep, featuring a cross passage and a closet wing. A brick band is visible on the first floor. Gauged red brick arches frame the flush frame sash windows, with wood architraves. The doorcases have well-carved brackets and panelled soffits to flat hoods; No. 15 has a patterned fanlight above the door, and both houses have panelled doors.

Inside No. 15, the entrance and staircase hall are panelled. The open-string staircase has decorated ends and carved turned balusters, with a matching dado on the opposite wall featuring Corinthian pilasters. Ground and first-floor rooms have raised and fielded panelling and box cornices. A panelled cross passage connects the front and rear rooms, and on the upper floors, a closed-string staircase with turned balusters rises to the third floor.

The interior of No. 16 has a fully panelled entrance and staircase hall, featuring fluted Corinthian pilasters forming an inner arch. The open-string staircase has decorated ends and twisted balusters, three per tread, leading to the first floor, with a corresponding dado and Corinthian pilaster strips. Ground and first floors feature full-height raised and fielded panelling and early 19th-century fireplaces. A 20th-century staircase is present on the upper floors.

The properties include cast-iron area railings with decorative finials. These houses are similar in quality to Nos. 8, 9, 12 and 13 Bedford Row and are notable for retaining the original ground-floor plan, with the cross-passages not incorporated into the front rooms as buffet spaces. They represent an exceptional grouping of properties.