No.42 and Attached Railings

This is a house, now converted into flats, completed in 1792, with 20th-century additions. It was designed by John Palmer and built by James Beale. The front of the house is faced with limestone ashlar, while the basement is of rubble construction, and the rear is of ashlar and render. It has an artificial slate, parapeted mansard roof with a catslide to the rear wing, a coped party wall, and a large ashlar stack to the right.

The house is built on a constricted site between Park Street and the rear of the north range of St James's Square, and has a double-fronted, single-depth plan with a rear wing containing the staircase. It is three storeys high with an attic and basement, and has a three-window front. The first floor has three plate glass horned sash windows in plain reveals with stone sills. The second floor has three similar windows. The ground floor has two similar windows in splayed reveals, and a six-panel door to the centre, which has been altered near the bottom and features two fielded panels and two glazed panels. The door is within a pedimented Doric doorcase, with one step to a pennant paved crossover featuring a cast iron footscraper. The basement has two plate glass horned sash windows in plain reveals with stone sills, and 20th-century area steps. Two dormers with 20th-century windows are visible in the roof. There is a band course above the ground floor, a frieze, a moulded eaves cornice and a coped parapet continuous with No. 16 St James's Square. The rear elevation has a 20th-century window to the first half-landing, and a six/six-sash window to the second half-landing.

The interior has not been inspected.

Attached to the right are cast iron railings with baluster form, the tops of which have been cut down and set on limestone bases. To the left are wrought iron railings with cast arrow heads on limestone bases. 20th-century railings and a gate provide access to the crossover.

The house was built as part of an incomplete development of St James's Square, on land leased from Sir Peter Rivers Gay. Lower Park Street forms one of the four diagonal approaches to St James's Square. An underlease was granted to James Beale on 23 May 1792 for 95 years from 24 June 1790.