9, Clifford Street W1

Terraced town house, 9 Clifford Street, built 1719–21 by Benjamin Timbrell, with an attic storey added before 1836. The interior was reconstructed following a major fire in 1988.

The building comprises three storeys plus attic and basement, with a rear wing on the west side rising to the same height as the main house. The red brick façade is symmetrical, organised in five bays and flanked by pilaster strips, with a central entrance. The stone doorcase features attached Ionic columns, an entablature with pulvinated frieze and modillion cornice supporting a triangular pediment. Gauged brick segmental arches span the windows from basement to second floor; flat arches frame the attic windows. First and second floor windows have raised aprons. All windows are 6-over-6 pane sash windows, reinstated after the fire. A brick plat band runs at first floor level, a moulded brick string course at second floor, and a moulded stone cornice at third floor with a parapet and coping. Wrought-iron area railings with projecting scrollwork lamp brackets flank the entrance.

The interior plan of the main house comprises one front and one back room to each floor. The entrance hall and stair were reinstated after the fire, incorporating some surviving fabric. The large entrance hall occupies the whole of the ground floor front room—an unusual arrangement—and features an enriched compartmented ceiling. An imperial stair on the left (west) side has a close-string designed as an enriched entablature, thick square enriched newels, and turned balusters. The stair rises through an Ionic columned screen, mirrored at the opposite end of the hall. An original stone chimneypiece with eared architrave stands on the east wall. The stair landing displays swagged plasterwork and an enriched compartmented ceiling with a central octagonal compartment. A door leading to the front room has an eared architrave, enriched pulvinated frieze, and triangular pediment. The first floor front room retains full-height panelling, an enriched modillion cornice, and decorative ceiling plasterwork, entirely reinstated after the fire. It contains a good late 18th-century marble neo-classical chimneypiece. The remaining rooms were not reinstated and are not of special interest.

Clifford Street was built between 1719 and 1723 as part of the Burlington estate. Number 9 was originally occupied by the Earl of Harold, son of the Duke of Kent. Benjamin Timbrell (c.1683–1754) was one of the most prominent master builders working in London in the first half of the 18th century and also built substantial houses in the neighbouring Grosvenor Estate. The house has important group value with No. 8 Clifford Street. It was listed at Grade II* in 1958 and regraded to Grade II in 2006 to reflect the substantial loss of original interior fabric following the 1988 fire, including panelled rooms and a secondary staircase, which were not reinstated. The restoration work was carried out to a high standard and has reinstated some of the original grandeur of the fine principal rooms at ground and first floor.