78 Wimpole Street, Westminster

MATERIALS: brick, now painted; stucco; slate roof.

PLAN: two rooms deep, with the stair located at the front; the rear rooms are consequently wider than the front rooms. A secondary stair from second floor to attic is located at the rear of the principal stair. At ground and first floor, a lobby has been inserted between the front and rear room. The plan is more altered at second-floor level, and the basement has been entirely modernised.

EXTERIOR: four storeys high plus basement and mansard attic; three bays wide. The ground floor is faced in channelled stucco. Early-mid C19 porch with Corinthian columns. Windows are six-over-nine pane sash windows at ground and first floor; the remainder are six-over-six. The glazed door and rectangular fanlight date from 1907. The mansard roof has three dormers. The cast-iron area railings are C20 replacements on the original low stone wall. Stone steps with an iron balustrade lead down to a basement area with brick vaults under the pavement. The rear elevation has a canted bay window at basement and ground-floor level, remodelled and rendered. Windows are 1950s metal casements. At the rear is a one-storey and basement building, linked to the house by a corridor. This was rebuilt in the 1950s and is not of special interest.

INTERIOR: the entrance hall has an original plaster modillion cornice, moulded dado rail and skirtings. The elegant stair rises from ground- to second-floor levels and is intact with the exception of the bottom newel post which dates from 1907, replacing a curtail. The stair has an open well, an open string with scroll-silhouette tread ends, column newels, a ramped mahogany handrail and turned column-on-vase balusters. The inner string is ramped and has a moulded rail and skirtings. Stair landings also have modillion cornices. The secondary stair has been rebuilt. The rear ground-floor room has an Edwardian chimneypiece in the C18 style. The chimneypiece in the first-floor rear room is original, and has an elaborate lugged and scrolled surround and marble slips. This room also has an original plaster cornice with enriched modillions, egg-and-dart and dentils, with some disruption from inserted steels. No original doors survive, but some window architraves, panelled shutters and aprons remain in the front part of the building.