Numbers 19-31 And Attached Railings

Numbers 19-31 Bloomsbury Place are a terrace of early 19th-century houses, originally stucco-faced. The roofs are hidden behind a parapet. The houses are four storeys high, with a basement, and each has one window facing the street.

The exterior features a round-arched entrance with a fanlight; Nos. 22, 23, 27, and 31 have decorated lintels and glazing bars of original design. A segmental bay to the left contains tripartite windows. The ground floor is treated with banded rustication, while the first floor has a balcony with cast-iron brackets and railings. There is a segmental bay to the first floor, set slightly off-center from the ground-floor bay and made wider; it also contains tripartite windows. All windows are flat-arched. A horizontal string course divides the second and third floors, and a cornice tops the building.

During the 19th century, canted bays of varying sizes replaced the original segmental bays. No. 19 has a canted bay to the second floor; No. 23 has a canted bay to the second and third floors, extending above the original first-floor bay; No. 28 has a canted bay to the first floor only; No. 29 has a two-storey canted bay; and Nos. 26 and 30 have full-height canted bays. The bay at No. 26 is particularly elaborate, with quarter pilasters rising the full height of the bay and decorative keystones to the window lintels. The sills are supported by paired console brackets, and each storey of the bay has a cornice.

Originally, Nos. 24-27 were treated as a larger central pavilion with Tuscan pilaster strips at the party walls, topped by a pediment. Only traces of the pediment remain, including a volute bracket visible at No. 24. A similar bracket at the party wall of No. 21 suggests there may have been a further pediment or that all party walls were marked by brackets in the parapet. Original sash windows are found on the ground floor of Nos. 21, 22, and 31; the first floor of Nos. 20-22, 25, 27, and 31; the second floor of Nos. 20, 22, 25, 31; and the third floor of Nos. 20, 22, 25, and 31. Mid-19th century encaustic tile pavements are present on the stairs and walkways of Nos. 19 and 20. Cast-iron window guards are fixed to the first floor of No. 28. Stacks rise from the party walls between the houses.

The interiors have not been inspected.

The railings to the stairs and areas are original. Numbers 19-31 are grouped with Nos. 1-13 and 15-18 Bloomsbury Place.