14, Castle Street

This is a substantial house, now offices, built between 1723 and 1728 for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. It was likely designed by Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, who were the Duke’s London surveyors. The interior was remodelled in the late 18th century. The house is constructed of red and yellow brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with stone mouldings to the parapet, cornice, architraves and doorcase. It has a plain tile roof with brick stacks at the gable ends, while the rear wing has a hipped roof and zig-zag tiles.

The building is of a double-depth plan with a two-story rear wing to the right. It is three stories high with a symmetrical five-window front. A substantial cornice sits beneath the parapet. The windows are 6/6-pane sash windows, with plate glass in the lower sashes of those on the ground floor. They are set within segmental-arched, moulded architraves with plain cills and moulded brackets. Three semi-elliptical stone steps lead up to a tall six-panel door with added moulding to the upper panels and a beaded moulding to the base, set within a moulded architrave with a keystone. The doorcase features a shallow hood with a dentilled cornice and a pulvinated frieze supported by Corinthian pilasters. Cellar openings are defined by two segmental brick arches to the right, with a fourth likely obscured by the raised street level. An early 18th-century sash window with thick glazing bars is located at the rear.

Inside, the central hall features a late 18th-century reeded cornice. An open-well, open-string staircase with stick balusters, fretted ends, turned newels, a wreathed mahogany handrail and a curtail step is located to the right of the hall. A four-panel early 18th-century door at the base of the stairs is set within a late 18th-century architrave with a fluted pilaster below the dado rail. The early 18th-century staircase to the second floor is of a closed-string design with a turned newel and moulded rail. A room to the right of the first-floor front contains full-height raised and fielded panelling. Some early 18th-century raised and fielded two-panel doors remain on the second floor. The terraces of houses in Castle Street form an important group, notable for their scale and ambition outside of London’s West End.