Number 127 And Attached Railings

Number 127 is a mansion flat, likely designed around 1826 by Amon Wilds and Charles Augustin Busby. It is constructed of stucco, with a roof hidden behind a parapet. The main facade has three windows, while the left return elevation has five. The narrow Marine Parade frontage is treated as a full-height, nearly full-width segmental bay with banded rustication to the ground floor. A first-floor balcony features cast-iron railings. A giant pilastrade of Composite order extends for three bays, rising from the first to the second floors and continuing around the return. The pilasters are set back slightly from the corner, emphasizing the building’s height and adding visual strength to the corner. A storey band sits behind the pilastrade between the first and second floors, topped by an entablature that forms a sill band to the first of two attic storeys. The attic area is divided into bays aligned with the pilastrade, with plain pilasters separated by an entablature. This design isolates each attic window within a grid. All windows are flat-arched with architraves on the ground, first, and second floors, while the top floor has paired corbel blocks supporting a projecting sill. The parapet is designed as a blind balustrade. The subdivision of the elevation with pilasters, entablatures, and storey bands is repeated on the five-window return elevation. The fourth bay from the corner contains a flat-arched entrance with side and overlights, framed by thin Tuscan pilasters and an entablature, set under a tetrastyle prostyle porch with Doric columns on socles, an entablature featuring a laurel frieze, a cornice incorporating mutules with guttae. A first-floor balcony with cast-iron railings aligns with the main elevation. A full-height segmental bay rises from the porch, featuring triple, flat-arched windows. Giant pilasters of Composite order frame the bay, while the wall surfaces of the first and second floors are banded and rusticated, with windows featuring projecting sills on paired corbels. The central window of the bay on the first two floors projects slightly and has a floating cornice. In the attics, the triple windows are flanked by rectangular niches. Ground- and first-floor windows in the second window range of the return are blocked. At the rear of the return, there are two closely spaced pilasters instead of one. Short returns of elements lead to an alley. Sashes of original design remain on the return to the second and attic floors of the bay, and on the third floor of the first window range. Stacks are located on the end and party walls. The interior was not inspected. There are railings to the stairs and areas. Number 127, along with numbers 128-133 (consecutive) and 133A Marine Parade, forms an important group with Marine Square and Portland Place.