23-25, DEVONSHIRE PLACE W1

These are a pair of terraced town houses located at numbers 23 and 25 Devonshire Place, London, built around 1790 to 1800 as part of the Portland Estate development, extending from Upper Wimpole Street. The houses are constructed of stock brick with channelled stucco to the ground floors, and have slate roofs. Number 25 is five storeys high, while the other house is four storeys with a dormered mansard roof, both having basements. Each house has a three-window front. Wide, semicircular arched doorways are on the left-hand side, with panelled doors, side lights, pilastered jambs, moulded doorheads, and patterned fanlights above. The upper floors have recessed sash windows set within stucco reveals, all beneath flat, gauged brick arches. A plat band runs along the facade, marking the end of the stucco work at the first floor level. Number 23 has parapets with copings and a bracketed stucco cornice. Continuous cast iron balconies, dating from the early to mid 19th century, run along the first floor of both houses. The front is completed with cast iron area railings and tasselled spike finials.