19, Crown Passage

1900/0/10332 CROWN PASSAGE 30-APR-03 19

GV II

House. c.1730. Two windows wide, three storeys, basement and attic. Victorian shop front to ground floor. Upper floors faced in yellow stock bricks, red window arches of gauged red brick. Slate roof. Windows replaced with tall casements. Interior, particularly upper three floors, retain much joinery including fielded panelling, box cornices, fireplace surrounds (some with later Georgian grates), doors. The winder staircase retains turned balusters and columnar newels, with dado panelling. HISTORY: Crown Passage, formerly called Golden Lion Court, was in existence by 1680 and soon became noted for its coffee and public houses. The earliest lease relating to this house (in the possession of Lock & Co.) dates from 1732, which described it as one of five small messuages in the same ownership. It then became part of the Red Cow public house. During the early 19th century it was in multiple family occupation; from 1881 it was used as a marine store dealers, a sort of rag and bone shop. It forms a pair with the already listed No 18 Crown Passage, and is listed as a now rare survival of an artisanal house in St James's from the early Georgian period, which retains much of its internal fabric.

SOURCE: Ruth Guilding, 'History of 19 Crown Passage, St James's, London' (privately commissioned report, February 2003).