26-30, PORTLAND PLACE W1

Nos. 26 to 30 Portland Place is a group of large terraced townhouses built between 1776 and 1780 by James Adam, alongside his brothers and John Elwes, as part of a speculative development on a Portland Estate lease. The houses are constructed of stock brick with a channelled stucco ground floor and feature a slate roof. They are designed as a symmetrical block with No. 32, with the central house, No. 28, highlighted by a giant pilaster order, while the others have plain elevations.

The buildings rise four storeys, including an added attic storey, and are set over basements. Each house has a three-window wide front. The broad semicircular arched doorways are located to the left (or to the right on No. 26), with No. 28 featuring a fluted Doric columned porch. The doorways have double panelled doors, sidelights with panelled dividers, and a frieze adorned with rams' heads supporting a cornice doorhead and fanlight. No. 28 also boasts an Ionic columned inscribed Venetian composition for its door, sidelights, and fanlight.

The upper floors have recessed sash windows under flat gauged arches. A plat band finishes the stucco work at the first floor, with Nos. 26 and 30 displaying a moulded stucco cornice over the first floor and a stucco entablature and balustrade over the second floor. No. 28 is distinguished by giant stucco Ionic pilasters extending through the first and second floors and attic storey, divided by pilaster strips and topped with a shallow pediment. The first floor features geometric patterned cast iron balconies, and the area railings are finished with urns and plumbed spike finials.

Inside, particularly in No. 28, there are notable Adam interior features, including friezes and ceilings with delicate plasterwork, stone geometrical staircases with wrought iron balustrades, and statuary marble chimneypieces.