Uxbridge House

Uxbridge House is a town mansion built between 1721 and 1723. It was originally designed by Giacomo Leoni for Lord Clifton and completed for the Duke of Queensbury. Between 1785 and 1789, John Vardy the younger and Joseph Bonomi significantly enlarged and altered the building for Lord Uxbridge. Later, Philip Hardwick made alterations in 1855 when it was converted into a bank.

The front elevation incorporates brick faced with Portland stone and a slate roof. It is a notable early Palladian design that has been sensitively enlarged and adapted over time. The building is three storeys high with a basement, and ten windows wide. The ground floor features a rusticated arcaded facade framing the windows and a central Roman Doric coupled column portico added by Hardwick for the bank. The windows have recessed glazing bars. The upper floors are defined by a giant order of Composite pilasters which rise from pedestals to an entablature and balustraded parapet. The tall first-floor windows each have an architrave, except for the outermost bays, and cornices. Geometric cast iron balconies are positioned over the portico. Cast iron area railings with panelled standards and lampholders are also present.

The eight-bay return to Old Burlington Street, likely largely from Leoni’s original design, was heightened and includes Vardy’s Roman Doric porch. Stone plat bands are present on the first floor, and there’s a stone cornice over the second floor. A four-bay return in brick to Savile Row was extended with a one-storey and basement banking hall of four bays by P. C. Hardwick around 1876. This extension features architraved and pedimented windows, an entablature, and a balustraded parapet.

The interior retains elements of Leoni’s original design on the western side, particularly the stone staircase with a wrought iron rail. The Vardy and Bonomi alterations are also visible, including a coffered ceiling with plasterwork by Joseph Rose over the staircase, with panelled niches to the walls. Rose’s plasterwork also decorates the ceiling of the Committee Room. The eastern half of the interior was altered for banking purposes, featuring a large, top-lit, ornately classical banking hall to the rear.