Nos. 74 and 75, LONG LANE

Nos. 74 and 75 Long Lane comprise a row of houses, originally built around 1598, with later alterations. They are now joined laterally. No. 74 has a projecting upper front with mathematical tiles, although the upper floor has modern tile hanging. No. 75 has been refronted in brick.

The houses originally featured a single room per floor, with staircases to the rear. No. 74 has a single window on each floor, with 6/6-pane sash windows to the first and second floors and a 3/6-pane sash to the third. A mid-Victorian and 20th-century shopfront occupies the ground floor, set beneath the projecting jettied front. The rear elevation of No. 74 was rebuilt in the early 19th century, using yellow brick with Portland stone sills to the windows. No. 75 has a late Victorian shopfront and the upper floors have been refaced in late 19th-century brick, painted in recent times. The rear elevation of No. 75, dating from around 1700, includes plat bands at the first, second and third floor levels, with central paired sash windows beneath segmental arches.

Internally, No. 74 has been significantly altered, but retains some earlier features, including a columnar newel post on the second-floor staircase, a stone fireplace surround with roundels in the corners of the front first-floor room (dating from the early 19th century), and a protruding cross beam in the front second-floor room. No. 75 retains a flight of a closed string staircase on the second floor, with column and vase balusters from around 1700.

These houses are notable as rare surviving examples of pre-Great Fire of London row houses, built on land developed by Lord Rich from 1598 onwards as part of a large early modern building development including five row houses built by Garrett Johnson, let on lease in 1598. Robert Harrison was similarly let a lease for the plot of No. 75. The houses underwent substantial rebuilding, with No. 75 largely reconstructed around 1700 and No. 74 altered in the late Georgian period. A watercolour from around 1840 depicts the houses as jettied four-storey buildings with an attic and gabled, tiled roof. They suffered bomb damage, leading to the replacement of the upper floors and roofs, and the tile-hanging on No. 74 dates from this period. The buildings’ interest lies in their original plan, their rarity as pre-1666 small London houses, and the jettied front of No. 74 with its later mathematical tiles. They were formerly the offices of Chambers, publishers, and have been linked together laterally.