Duke'S House

Duke's House is a tenement block of flats built between 1928 and 1930 as part of the Westminster Housing Scheme for the Grosvenor Estate, with Sir Edwin Lutyens acting as a consultant. The building is constructed of grey brick and white rendered chequerboard external elevations, with grey brick and rendered access galleries to the rear of the shallow courtyard. It features stone dressings and concealed roofs. The design takes cues from the Georgian style, with decorative detailing primarily concentrated on the entrance bay.

The building has a symmetrical facade to Vincent Street and stands six storeys high. A broad central recess, blind except for central stairlights, is flanked by two shallow projecting ranges, each four windows wide, with one bay on each range left as a rendered chequer panel within the chequerboard pattern. Returns of six windows and south-facing ends with four windows are visible on the shallow wings of the rear courtyard. A central, channelled pier entrance leads to the stairs, with an archivolt arch under an open pediment and a stepped parapet above, all set within a built-out ashlar screen wall, which is adorned with four carved stone escutcheon panels. Flush-framed glazing bar sashes are used throughout, set within the chequerboard pattern. Parapet copings finish off the facades. The design represents an inventive Lutyens interpretation of a typical London County Council housing block.