73 Harley Street

House, later medical consulting rooms, of 1905 in Edwardian Renaissance style by William Henry White on the site of an earlier terraced house of circa 1773.

MATERIALS: the Harley Street frontage is of red brick in Flemish bond with stone dressings and cast iron railings and flower guards to the first floor. The rear elevation is faced with glazed tiles. The roof is concealed behind a parapet.

PLAN: four storeys with attics and basement and three bays. The principal floors have a well staircase to the south, a large room to the north-east and a smaller room to the north-west.

EXTERIOR: the Harley Street elevation has a curved gable with a stone coping and kneelers, oculus and a four-light window. The third floor has three elliptical-headed sash windows with keystones and eared architraves and stone bands and quoins. The lower floors have a curved triple bay from second to ground floor level with taller sash windows to the first and ground floors and balconnettes to the first floor windows. There is a further bay on the north side of the second and first floors with sash windows and a balconnette at first floor level. Below the entrance has a stone, curved open-pediment supported on engaged Tuscan columns, a half-glazed mahogany door with side lights, fanlights and three steps to street level.

The rear elevation is clad with white glazed tiles and has a canted bay through three floors.

INTERIOR: the Harley Street entrance leads into a vestibule with dado rail and panelling, including a glazed screen with Art Nouveau style metal decoration incorporating a doorcase with broken curved pediment and side-lights. The hall beyond has dado panelling, mahogany doorcases with eared architraves and door furniture, a fireplace with eared architraves and a swag frieze, and a mahogany well staircase with turned balusters and square newel posts rising to the attic where there is a rectangular glazed fanlight with metal decoration. The large front ground floor room retains its dado rail, cornice with ovolo moulding, and has a fire surround with a reeded architrave and coloured tiles.

The larger first floor front room has an Adam style ceiling with wheat ear decoration and painted roundels of later C18 date, probably salvaged from the earlier building on the site, an elaborate cornice, panelled walls with a dado rail, and a marble fire surround with fluted Ionic columns. Another room also has a painted roundel, dado rail and a fire surround with raised panel and pilasters with wheat ear drops.

The second floor retains a cornice and a narrower fire surround with swag and paterae.

The basement has a plainer service flight of stairs with stick balusters and square newel post with a fixed wooden tray support, and retains some original half-glazed room divisions.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: there are attached cast iron area railings with some urn finials and scrollwork decoration.