Numbers 10 To 18 (Including The Institute Of Contemporary Arts) And Railings To North And West

Numbers 10 to 18, including the Institute of Contemporary Arts, form a pair of grand town houses built in the 1820s as a monumental termination to Nash’s planned route, replacing Carlton House. The north section was built between 1827 and 1829 by John Nash, with assistance from Sir James Pennethorne. Number 18 was completed in 1863 by William Burn to conclude Nash’s original design. The buildings are constructed of stucco with slate roofs.

The houses are four stories high with a basement on the north side, and three stories with three-story and attic end pavilions on the south side. They are raised on a terrace overlooking the park, and are 31 windows wide in total. The north entrance front is relatively simple, with projecting end pavilions, and features three grouped portico porches with coupled Ionic columns to numbers 12 to 17, and individual Ionic columned porticos to the end pavilions. It has recessed glazing bar sash windows, a cornice, and a blocking course which returns to flank the facing steps. Cast iron spearhead area railings are present.

The Park front, primarily attributable to Nash, displays a fenestration rhythm of 5:8:5:8:5, with taller, slightly projecting end pavilions. Recessed architraved glazing bar sash windows are articulated by a giant Corinthian order that extends through the ground and first floors, engaged to the end pavilions and detached to the long central range, which is pedimented with scrollwork in the tympanum over the five centre bays of the attic. The double-height attics of the end pavilions are characterised by panelled pilaster piers in antis. A notable feature is the deeply cantilevered balustraded balconies to the first-floor windows within the giant order. A deep balustraded terrace is supported by engaged cast iron Greek Doric columns with segmental arched windows between them. The west flank has a continuous balustraded first-floor balcony.

The interiors have been largely altered. Number 11 was the former home of W.E. Gladstone between 1857 and 1875 (marked by an LCC plaque), who also resided at numbers 13 and 4.