144-146 New Bond Street (Formerly Colnaghi)

144-146 New Bond Street, formerly Colnaghi (and previously Partridge’s Gallery), is a commercial and gallery building dating to 1912. It was designed by E.A. Rickards of Lanchester and Rickards for Colnaghi, intended to showcase fine art and antiques. The building is constructed of Portland ashlar with a slate roof and features sculpture by Poole. Its architectural style is a sophisticated Franco-German Baroque.

The building is four storeys high with a steep, two-storey attic containing dormers above a prominent cornice, and an additional workshop attic. The symmetrical facade is six windows wide, with rusticated flanking bays. The ground floor features a porte-cochere with ornamental cast iron gates and an entrance to the upper floors, both surmounted by "mezzanine" openings. The central three bays have a shop front with a marble pilaster frame, entablature, and concave splayed reveal panels leading to a central doorway. The first floor has a sill course, and the first floor windows are small wood casements with cornices and garland-consoles. The central tripartite window has a shaped pediment breaking up into a blind pierced balustrade on the second floor, topped with sculpted urns and a central sculpted figure. The second and third floors of the central four bays are slightly recessed. A deep cornice and blocking course is supported by large Doric consoles, topped by corniced dormers, the central one being broader and segmental headed. The rear elevation on Bruton Place is a simpler two-storey brick structure with sash windows and shop fronts with cornices and glazed tiles.

An unusual internal feature includes a metal and glazed fishscale ornamented grille system with mirrors in skylights, designed to control humidity and reflect light. The rooms were designed to complement the styles of the art and antiques being displayed, incorporating genuine reused interior fittings. The front room features fluted and reeded columns with acanthus capitals and pilasters, leading to a staircase with a mahogany handrail. A series of rooms branching off the corridor display diverse decorative features, including cornices with bucrania and swags, a domed ceiling with painted pilasters, elaborate scrolls and shell ornamentation, and pilasters and fasces. The Rear Dining Room has linenfold oak panelling with carved panels, a four-centred arched stone fireplace, built-in bookcases with strapwork fronts, and a spine beam. An adjoining room has an Italian Gothic style marble fireplace, carved wooden pilasters, a ceiling with panels of St Andrew’s Cross, and an elaborate door with eight gilded panels. Above these rooms is a picture gallery with a deep cornice. The First Floor Walnut Room has walnut panelling, a plastered ceiling dated 1913 with the initials "C and Co", and a number of 18th-century style marble fireplaces. A further staircase has turned balusters and a mahogany handrail. This is a rare survival of an early 20th-century gallery.