No.5 and Attached Railings

No. 5 is a terrace house, completed in 1790, with alterations from the 19th and 20th centuries. It was designed by John Palmer and built by Charles Viner. The front of the house is limestone ashlar, painted on the ground floor and basement, while the rear is rubble with small ashlar and rendered extensions. It has a parapeted mansard roof, with Welsh slate on the lower front slope and double Roman tiles. There are two ashlar chimney stacks, incorporating some early clay pots on a coped party wall to the left.

The house is three storeys, with an attic and basement, and has a three-window front. The first floor has three grouped plate glass sash windows with horns, which are narrower on the left and right. The second floor has three similar sash windows, all with a continuous stone sill. The ground floor has a plate glass sash window with horn to the left, and a door to the right with reeded fielded panels and a single glazed panel. The door is set within a doorcase featuring panelled pilaster strips with console brackets supporting a moulded cornice, and has a single step to a pennant paved crossover with a wrought iron footscraper. The basement has a sash window and a plank door with an overlight, set within ashlar infilling, with 20th-century area steps. A double dormer window with six/six sashes in a moulded architrave is located in the roof. Timber bressumers and a moulded band course are above the ground floor. A moulded eaves cornice and coped parapet complete the exterior. The upper lengths of downpipe on the right are lead. The rear elevation features plate glass sash windows, a small ashlar extension, a rendered hanging lavatory extension, and a 20th-century timber and glass hanging veranda. A double dormer with six/six sashes is also present at the rear.

The interior has not been inspected.

Attached to the house are wrought iron railings and a gate, featuring cast arrow heads on limestone bases. The property is part of an incomplete development around St James’s Square, built on land leased from Sir Peter Rivers Gay on 25 March 1790. Marlborough Street forms one of the four diagonal approaches to St James’s Square. An underlease was granted to Charles Viner on 5 October 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790.