31, St Martin'S Lane Wc2

Terraced house and shop at 31 St Martin's Lane, formerly a bank. The building is reputed to date from around 1635, with rebuilding in the later 17th or early 18th century. It was heightened and altered in the 19th century, then comprehensively refurbished and restored in 2000.

The exterior is constructed of stock brick with stone and stucco dressings. The ground floor features a polished stone shopfront. The roof is an M-plan design with tiles and glazing. The building rises to four storeys and is arranged symmetrically across three bays. Windows were replaced in 2000 based on 19th-century forms.

The ground floor, as it existed in 1905, contained round-arched entrances: the left provided access to the upper floors, whilst the right led to the shop. A central shop window sits beneath a segmental arch, flanked by pilasters. The upper floors display sash windows with slender glazing bars set in slightly recessed openings under flat gauged brick arches. At first-floor level, the left and right windows feature mask keystones, whilst the central window is set within a round-headed moulded architrave. A continuous moulded impost band runs across. Above this are rendered panels adorned with swags and garlands. A continuous enriched cill band marks the second floor, where the left and right windows again have mask keystones and the central window sits in an eared architrave, also with mask keystone and accentuated voussoirs. A plain storey band separates this from the third floor, whose windows sit under plain arches with a central blind recessed panel. The parapet is plain with stone coping. The right party wall has a brick stack; the left return on Brydges Place is rendered.

Internally, the ground floor ceiling was raised in the later 19th century, reducing the height of the first floor. Above ground level, a softwood closed-string stair with turned newels and balusters rises to the second floor; this section is a 19th-century replacement. Above the second floor, the stair is partly original 18th century with 19th-century replacements, featuring a moulded string, square-based turned newels, slender turned balusters, and moulded rail. The stair well at the upper floor is plainly panelled.

The first-floor front room retains three-quarter panelling, curtailed at dado level by the raising of the floor, with alternating sunk and raised fielded panels. Near the centre is an alcove, now with doors, set in a moulded architrave beneath a broken pediment and slender applied two-thirds semicircular arch. Opposing north and south alcoves exist; the south alcove is damaged and contains a later chimneypiece. The window reveals are enriched and panelled, with panelled rear arches. A robust modillion cornice runs around the room, and the ceiling is panelled with a central hexagon and guilloche-moulded ribs, formerly with painted panels that may survive under current paint. The door to the landing features six raised and fielded panels with egg-and-dart mouldings. A five-panelled door leads to the rear room, which, along with a closet, has plastered box cornices.

The second floor front room has full-height enriched panelling with a moulded timber cornice on three sides. The chimneypiece sits in an eared architrave with flanking scroll brackets, a tall frieze, and plain central panel, decorated with blue and white tiles depicting scenes from Aesop's Fables. A panelled cupboard stands to the left of the entrance, and a pair of doors with L-hinges lead to the rear room. The rear room contains plain panelling to full height with an angle chimneypiece; its mouldings were added in 2000 based on examples elsewhere in the building. A restored cyma-moulded cornice crowns the room.

The third floor contains plain panelled rooms with two-panel doors, one original and the others replicas. Early brickwork is exposed in the party wall gable.