Numbers 4-15 (Consecutive) And Attached Railings

Numbers 4 to 15 form a terrace of twelve houses constructed between 1841 and 1843, situated on the south side of Percy Circus, a circular development laid out on a steep hillside between Prideaux Place and Great Percy Street. Designed by William Chadwell Mylne for the New River Estate, the houses are built of gold and brown stock bricks in a Flemish bond pattern, with a banded stucco ground floor and stucco dressings. The roofs are slate, with mansard roofs to numbers 5, 6, 9, 10, 13 and 14 (number 13 being Welsh slate); the roofs of the others are obscured by a blocking course. The houses follow a side-hall entrance plan, with separate entrances to the end houses (numbers 4 and 15) in Prideaux Place and Great Percy Street.

The houses are four storeys high with a basement to numbers 4, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 15, while numbers 5, 6, 9, 10, 13 and 14 are three storeys with a basement and dormered attic. Each house has two windows, with the exception of the single-bay end houses. The houses are paired, except for the end houses. Low steps lead to the entrances, which are recessed to accommodate the steep gradient. Doorways have pilaster jambs supporting corniced heads, rectangular overlights, and panelled doors (although the doors at numbers 4, 8, 11 and the jambs, corniced head and doors at numbers 5 and 15 are 20th century replacements). The end houses, and alternate pairs of houses, have ground-floor tripartite sash windows; intervening pairs and the return wall to Prideaux Place have 6/6 sashes (to numbers 4, 6, 9, 10) and 8/8 sashes (to numbers 5, 13, 14). A stucco sill band runs to the first floor, where full-length 6/6 architraved sashes are found, with console-bracketed cornices and individual iron-bracketed cast-iron balconies with palmette pattern iron railings. The end houses have console-bracketed pedimented tripartite sashes with architraves. The second floor of the end houses and alternating pairs has 6/6 architraved sashes with keystones (to numbers 7, 8, 11, 12); intervening pairs have gauged brick flat arches over 6/6 sashes. The third floors of the end houses and alternating pairs have gauged brick flat arched 6/6 sashes. Numbers 7, 8, 11, 12 and 15 have a stucco sill band. A stucco cornice and blocking course is present on the end houses and alternating pairs; intervening pairs have a stucco parapet with stone coping to the attic storey (numbers 5 and 6 have a stucco cornice). Attached iron railings are also part of the property.

Percy Circus was named in honour of Robert Percy Smith, a governor of the New River Company, and was one of the last additions to the New River Estate. The circus suffered extensive damage during the Second World War, and some ranges were destroyed by bombing; in 1968, a further range was demolished to make way for the Royal Scot Hotel. Percy Circus is one of London’s few circuses, and its only residential one.