No. 16 and Attached Railings

No. 16 is a house, built around 1771-1773. The architect was John Wood the Younger. It is now divided into flats. The front of the building is faced with limestone ashlar, with rubble construction below the basement windows. The rear is a mix of ashlar and rubble, topped with a parapeted mansard roof covered in Welsh slate to the front and concrete tiles to the rear. A coped party wall adjoins the property on the right, with two ashlar stacks incorporating some early clay pots.

The house has three storeys, an attic, and a basement and features a three-window front. The first floor has three plate glass sash windows with horns, set within architraves that have splayed jambs, friezes, and cornices, finished with lowered moulded stone sills resting on cut-down console brackets. The second floor has a similar arrangement of plate glass sash windows with horns and stone sills. On the ground floor, to the right, are two plate glass sash windows with splayed jambs and stone sills; to the left is a six-panel door with flush beaded, fielded, and glazed panels, approached by two steps leading to a concrete crossover. The basement has two six/six-pane sash windows with stone sills, a 20th-century door with an overlight set within an ashlar infill, and concrete area steps. There are two dormers with two-light timber casements. The external features include a band course over the ground floor, a modillion eaves cornice and a coped parapet. A lead hopperhead and downpipe are attached to the left, shared with No. 15 Russell Street. The rear elevation has a six/six-pane sash window visible from the second half-landing of the staircase, a plate glass sash to the second floor, and a plate glass sash and a 20th-century window to a dormer. The interior was not inspected.

Attached to the house are wrought iron railings and a gate with shaped heads on limestone bases. Russell Street was developed by John Wood in connection with the Assembly Rooms and the eastern end of Rivers Street, using land formerly part of Holdstock's Garden or Russell's Close, which Wood and his trustee, Andrew Sproule, purchased in 1768.