5, Castle Street

This is a substantial house, now used as offices, dating to 1723-1728 and built for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. It shares a party wall with number 3 Castle Street and is part of a significant group of terraced houses. The design is attributed to Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, surveyors working for the Duke in London. The exterior was subsequently refronted in the late 18th or early 19th century. The house is constructed of Flemish-bond brick with stone quoins, cills, stepped voussoirs, a plinth capping, and a double Roman tile roof that continues with number 3. It has a double-depth plan and three storeys plus a basement.

The main facade features a symmetrical one-window range. Windows include 6/6-pane sashes with some crown glass; the second floor has a 3/6-pane sash, and there is a flat-arched basement opening. A painted and pedimented doorcase with pilasters, consoles, and a six-panel door (with smaller panels towards the centre) is located to the left. The right return also has rebuilt windows in a similar style and a semicircular gauged brick arch framing a tall 6/6-pane stair window on the first floor. Brick stacks are visible on the right return and rear elevations.

Inside, the hall contains late 19th-century inner doors with margin panes, an open-string staircase with fretted ends, a moulded handrail, and complex newels composed of a barleysugar-twist baluster surrounded by turned balusters. Upper rooms have plain full-height panelling and 4-panel doors with L hinges. One front room contains a mechanism for a former counter-balanced shutter system. The second floor includes wide floorboards and a late 19th-century cast-iron arch-plate register grate. The basement has a brick floor and a well on the right. The terraces of houses in Castle Street form a noteworthy group, unusually grand in scale for their location outside of London’s West End.