13, St James'S Square Sw1

No 13 St James's Square is a terraced town house built around 1735-1737, likely designed by Matthew Brettingham senior for Henry Lidell, Lord Ravensworth. The building features brick that is stained black and mock-pointed as headers, topped with a slate roof. It stands three storeys high with a basement and is four windows wide. The ground floor has later stone facing that is coursed and chamfered, with voussoirs and a keystone above a semicircular arched doorway located in the second bay from the left, as well as flat arches over recessed sash windows. The upper floors have recessed sashes set in stone architraves, with taller windows on the piano nobile that include cornices. There is a first-floor plat band and sill band, along with a bracketed main stone cornice and blocking featuring a 19th-century central chimney stack flanked by consoles and topped with a segmental pediment. Early 19th-century bowed cast iron balconies adorn the first floor, and there are cast iron area railings and lampholders.

Inside, the house retains several original features, including two fine Kentian chimneypieces on the ground floor. There is a notable stone staircase in a compartment that leads through the hall to the rear, featuring stone strips and a wrought iron balustrade with a ramped handrail. The ground floor compartment includes a chimney piece apse, frieze cornices, and pendentives supporting a saucer dome, all in late Georgian plasterwork. The principal front drawing room on the first floor displays Kentian motifs on the ceiling, although it has been redecorated in the late 18th or early 19th century. The rear west room retains its Kentian chimneypiece and other features.