No. 4 and Attached Railings

This is a late 18th century terrace house, likely dating from around 1790 to 1793, with a 19th-century alteration. It was designed by John Palmer and forms part of an incomplete development near St James’s Square. The house is situated on the corner of Great Bedford Street and Park Street Mews.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar to the front, with rendered and ashlar to the right side, and ashlar and rubble to the rear. It has a mansard roof covered in Welsh slate, with coped party walls to the left and right. Chimneys are built of ashlar and brick to the left, and of ashlar axially to the rear. The house is three storeys high, with an attic and basement, and features a three-window front. The first floor has three six-over-nine sash windows with wrought iron balconettes. The second floor has three six-over-six sash windows, with simple iron guards to the left and centre, and stone sills. The ground floor has two six-over-six sash windows in splayed reveals, also with stone sills. A six-panel door, with reeded, fielded, and glazed panels, a brass plate inscribed "No. 4," and a pedimented Doric doorcase, leads to the house. A single step leads up to a pennant paved crossover with a cast iron footscraper. The basement has two six-over-six sash windows with a continuous stone sill. A plank door with overlight and a small window within ashlar infilling sits beneath the crossover, with no visible area steps. Dormers with plate glass, horned sashes are set in moulded architraves. Architectural details include a band course over the ground floor, a sill band to the first floor, a frieze, a moulded eaves cornice, and a coped parapet. A Sun Fire Insurance plate is visible on the first floor, and a wrought iron lamp bracket is attached to the corner. The right side of the building features two small four-pane windows at half-basement level, set within an ashlar extension to the rear. Further windows, including a small 19th-century window with coloured border glazing, are also present on the right side. The rear elevation retains early six-over-six sash windows, and includes an early one-and-a-half-storey ashlar extension. The interior of the house has not been inspected.

Attached to the right of the front door are wrought iron railings, with cast shaped heads on limestone bases and an urn finial. These railings form part of the original design. The house was part of a development on land leased in 1790, and Great Bedford Street was intended as one of the diagonal approaches to St James's Square, but never completed. Parts of the street were destroyed by bombing in 1942. Historical documentation includes deeds, maps, and a survey of air raid damage.