10, Portman Street W1

This is a mid-to-late 1760s terraced house, located on Portman Street in London’s West End. It was built as part of the Portman Estate, with the builder unknown, and was altered in the mid-19th Century. The house is constructed of brick, later faced with stucco.

The house is four storeys high, with a basement, and has two bays facing the street. It occupies a trapezoidal plot, narrowing towards the front. The original plan includes an entrance hall on the right-hand side, with a staircase leading to the rear, and a front and rear room on each floor. It is thought the rear section of the house may have been raised by an additional storey at some point.

The ground floor is faced with channelled stucco. The windows feature mid-19th century moulded stucco architraves, with bracketed cornices to those on the first floor. A deep moulded cornice runs along the parapet. The sashes are later 19th or 20th century replacements. The front door is a modern addition, and the front is enclosed by 19th-century area railings. The return elevation to the front is blank, with two bays at the rear. The roof was converted to a mansard style in 2006.

The hall has a moulded cornice, visible only on the party wall. The staircase, which is trapezoidal in plan and lit by a modern glass lantern, is partially enclosed by a partition between the ground floor and the basement. It has a close-string design, with turned newels, slender turned balusters, and a mahogany handrail. Some original joinery remains, including six-panelled doors, architraves, shutters, and a dado to a first-floor room. Simple moulded cornices also survive in a rear room on the second floor.

The Portman Estate originally covered 270 acres, acquired by Sir William Portman in 1532. The area was open fields until 1749, but by 1799, mapped by Richard Horwood, it showed newly laid-out streets surrounding Portman Square, just north of Oxford Street. The houses were built on leaseholds, with the Estate dictating street lines and open spaces. Portman Street dates from the 1760s and was created following the laying out of Portman Square in 1764.

The house is considered to be of special interest due to its original plan, staircase, and some internal fittings and joinery. It is one of a small number of 18th-century houses on the Portman Estate that survived both World War II bombing and subsequent redevelopment. It contributes to a cohesive group with numbers 7-9 Portman Street, which, while unlisted, are of the same date; although the properties behind those facades have been redeveloped.