Bridgewater House

TQ 2980 SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER CLEVELAND ROW SW1 81/22 No 14 (Bridgewater House) 24.2.58 - I

Vast town mansion. Final design 1845 by Sir Charles Barry, completed 1854 for Lord Ellesmere. Bath stone, slate roof. A massive palazzo design developing from the architect's Reform Club. 3 storeys and basement to mansion with single storey coach house and 5 storey service wing on right hand east side within same overall height. 9 bays wide with vermiculated quoins. The ground floor has smooth rustication and large central porch of coupled Tuscan columns with vermiculated banding. Plain ground floor sash windows with semicircular arches; 1st floor piano nobile windows with bracketed segmental pediments and blind balcony balustrades. Plain square 2nd floor windows. Enriched bands at 1st and 2nd floor levels, bracketed entablature and balustraded parapet with large carved urns; corniced and rusticated chimney stacks. Elevation to Green Park of 7 bays in the rhythm 1:5:1, the single outer bays having wide Venetian windows on the piano nobile. On east side the coach house blind wall has rusticated quoins, pilasters dividing 3 panels and balustraded ball finialed parapet and is linked to service wing along Little St James Street by screen wall with double gates to yard flanked by gate piers with cast iron lamp standards. The service wing is stucco faced with rusticated quoins. Glazing bar sash windows, one on 3rd floor with bracketed balcony and canopy. Bracketed crowning cornice with blocking and corniced turrets to angles with arches. Taller belvedere to rear with coupled windows, corner turrets and balustrades. Grand and freely handled High Renaissance style interior of which the principal feature is the marble lined 2 storey top lit hall arcaded on both floors, little altered except for the picture gallery. Restored after war damage and adapted for office use.

London Vol I N Pevsner;

Survey of London; vol XXX

Listing NGR: TQ2920380070