78, Harley Street

Terraced town house, number 78 Harley Street, built circa 1773–75 as part of the Portland Estate development. The house was probably designed by John White in partnership with the plasterer Thomas Collins, both associates of Sir William Chambers.

EXTERIOR

The building is constructed of stock brick with channelled stucco applied to the ground floor. It comprises four storeys with dormered mansards built over basements, with a slate roof. The front elevation is three windows wide. A square-headed doorway positioned to the right features a vermiculated Gibbs surround framing modern double part-glazed doors with side lights and a fanlight above. A canted bay projects at ground floor level, with a front area enclosed by railings. All windows are now fitted with plate glass sashes beneath flat gauged arches on the upper floors. First floor plat bands run across the facade. Parapets are topped with stone copings. Continuous cast iron balconies with curved wrought iron S-scrolls embellish the first floor, probably dating to the later nineteenth century.

INTERIOR

The interior has been substantially altered and extended to the rear in the later nineteenth century, combining original features with Early Georgian-style features of Victorian date, alongside numerous notable sculptural items incorporated into the fabric.

The basement retains plain doors and surrounds. The front south-facing room contains a slanted light set into the wall.

The ground floor hall has a marble square floor and displays a stone armorial cartouche in a frame to the left of the doorway. A wrought iron radiator grille with decorative Ls in Louis XV style sits below the stairs, and a landscape painting is attached to the wall. The ground floor front room features an elaborate Baroque-style oak bookshelf and a Kentian white marble chimneypiece with shell and floral husk motifs. Mahogany doors and Kent-style doorcases appear throughout the main floors.

The ground floor central room displays a Rococo ceiling and a Kentian chimneypiece with Porturo marble columns and an Ionic screen. An in-built buffet incorporates a classical relief of draped figures flanking armorial cartouches, dating to the mid-sixteenth century.

A rear addition contains a room with a statuary marble chimneypiece featuring yellow jasper marble insets and a meander pattern frieze.

The mews house to the rear, facing inward to the west, is embellished with continental wrought iron window grilles, a relief of the lion of St Mark, and a rusticated arched window surround with a carved keystone. An open, top-lit stone cantilevered staircase with Louis XV-style ironwork of uncertain date features unusual passing places at mid-flight and on the main landing. The staircase incorporates several sculptural items set into the walls: a pair of marble tondi, probably Italian and dating to circa 1600, representing a pope and a bishop (presumably from a series of Fathers of the Church); a pair of Atlantes, probably from the sixteenth century; and at the top, an ecclesiastical Baroque armorial cartouche.

The first floor rooms are of high quality. The front room, currently subdivided, displays a fine Rococo ceiling and a Georgian statuary marble chimneypiece with Ionic columns, a central round relief of cherubs, and insets of verde antico marble.

The first floor central room features a fine Rococo ceiling, modillion cornice, and a statuary marble chimneypiece with tapering fluted pilasters, paterae, and urn reliefs. A central relief depicts acanthus-tailed cherubs flanking an urn.

The room in the rear extension includes a statuary marble chimneypiece with fluted pilasters, urns and paterae reliefs, and a central relief of acanthus-tailed cherubs flanking an urn.

The upper floors are of less architectural interest and have been considerably altered.

HISTORY AND CHARACTER

The house was built in the mid-1770s as part of the Portland Estate development. It retains fine ceilings and chimneypieces from this period. The plasterer Thomas Collins, a regular associate of William Chambers, was involved in the development. Substantial alterations were undertaken in the late nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century, the house was occupied by Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck, who may have been responsible for the installation of the sculptural items. A prestigious mid-Georgian town house of considerable interior interest.