98, PARK LANE W1

This is a "second rate" terraced town house located on Park Lane in Westminster. It was built between 1823 and 1825 by John Goldicutt, who was also the architect of the adjacent No. 99. The ground floor is stuccoed and the upper floors have a later 19th-century stucco façade, with a slate roof. The house originally had four main storeys and a basement, with a later 19th-century attic storey added. A through-storey canted bay window extends to the centre of the front, rising to the attic floor, with narrow side windows only on the second floor. The ground floor is channelled, with an entrance to the left featuring a panelled door with a moulded transom and a semicircular fanlight above. The windows are flat-arched recessed sashes and casements. A main entablature sits above the second floor, with a cornice and blocking above the third floor, and a shallow cornice with blocking crowning the later attic. A cast iron geometric balcony is present on the first floor, supported by plain ironwork and topped with a tent roof. A later tent-roofed canted bay window is in the attic, also with an iron guard rail. The area railings are spearhead and lotus finialed. The interior retains original features from Goldicutt’s design, notably the staircase and cornices, augmented by decorative elements in the French taste dating to around 1900 in the principal rooms. The house served as a residence for author and adventurer Frank Harris from 1888 to 1894.