Chandos House

Chandos House is a grand terraced town house dating to 1769-71, designed by Robert Adam for the 3rd Duke of Chandos on a lease from the Portland Estate. It is constructed of ashlar with a slate roof. The house is a particularly fine surviving example of Adam’s town house planning, with a long rear wing to the left which extends the sequence of state rooms beyond the principal and secondary stairwells. The layout bears resemblance to No 17 Hill Street and the demolished Derby House, Grosvenor Square. The building is three storeys tall, with a basement and dormered mansard, and has a symmetrical facade of four windows. The entrance is located in the second bay from the left, featuring a projecting stone porch with fluted Roman Doric columns and a festooned bucrania frieze below the cornice and blocking course. This shelters a semicircular arched doorway with a double-panelled door set in panelled reveals, above a delicately patterned radial fanlight. The windows are recessed, with glazing bars beneath flat voussoir lintels. A plat band and sill band are present, along with a Vitruvian scroll enriched band between the first and second floors, culminating in a crowning cornice and blocking course. Original wrought iron railings, incorporating lamp standards, are still in place. The interior remains remarkably intact and displays a varied modelling of wall planes, column screens, and niches, with bow-ended rooms to the rear. A square-well main staircase connects the hall and wing axis, featuring stone steps and fine Adam detailing to the wrought iron balustrade. The plasterwork is exceptionally delicate, incorporating grotesque and arabesque motifs, fanned patterns to ceilings, and inset painted panels, alongside statuary marble chimneypieces, mahogany doors, and chased furniture.