38-48, BELGRAVE SQUARE SW1

This is a grand terrace of houses located on Belgrave Square, dating to around 1825 and designed by George Basevi. The houses are constructed of stucco and feature low slate mansard roofs, built in a Graeco-Roman style. The central and end houses project slightly, incorporating giant Corinthian fluted columns to the first and second floors. The terrace comprises three storeys, an attic, and a basement (with additional attics within the mansard roofs of some houses). Each house is generally three windows wide, except for the central house which has five. Projecting Doric porches are present, and a continuous balcony runs along the first floor, incorporating both cast iron and stucco elements. The ground-floor windows are round-headed. A dentil cornice sits above the second floor, topped by a balustraded parapet with urn finials. Numbers 44 and 45 have been altered, featuring a continuous colonnade to the ground floor and a tented canopy to the balcony, supported on fretted elements with illusionistic fretwork arches to the rear wall. The central house is distinguished by sculpted pediments over the first-floor windows and a cartouche on the parapet. The interiors have not been inspected. Cast iron area railings are present. The terrace is one of four grand groups of buildings facing onto Belgrave Square.