13, Harley Street W1

13 Harley Street is a late 18th-century terrace house. It is built of brown brick with a stuccoed ground floor and mid-19th century stucco dressings. The house has four storeys and a basement, topped by a dormered slate mansard roof. It has three windows facing the street.

The exterior features a bracketed cornice to the third floor. The sash windows have flat gauged arches and stucco architraves with cornices; the central window on the first floor has a pedimented architrave. A round-headed doorway is flanked by side lights and surmounted by a fanlight. A cast iron balcony, dating from around 1800, runs across the front of the first floor.

Inside, a front compartment staircase rises the full height of the house, with a cut string and wrought iron balusters that form a gallery to the second floor. The ceiling displays excellent Rococo plasterwork, deeply modelled. The doorcases feature moulded architraves with shell motifs and Chinoiserie feet to the friezes of the entablatures, mirroring the detailing of the window architraves. The drawing room, located at the rear of the first floor, contains a rare and complete Chinoiserie ceiling design. This design features figures in a central oval compartment and ‘pagoda’ kiosks in the corners, accompanied by deeply modelled flying dragons, all highlighted in gilt and pastel tones above a modillion bracket cornice.