No 16 And Attached Wall To Left Return

No. 16 is a house dating to 1723-1728, built for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. It was designed by Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, the Duke's surveyors based in London. The house is constructed of Flemish-bond red and yellow brick, with moulded stone cornices, architraves, cills and a doorcase. It has a double-Roman tile roof with brick stacks to the gable ends. A later 18th-century wing was added to the rear right side. The house is of a double-depth plan and has a cellar; the main facade is three storeys high with a symmetrical five-window arrangement. The cornice curves upwards to the left, and the left return is featureless, suggesting an intended continuation of a terrace. Segmental arches feature above the cyma-moulded architraves of the windows, which have plain cills with moulded brackets, and contain 6/6-pane sash windows with thin glazing bars. The doorcase mirrors the window architraves, with diagonally-set fluted pilasters supporting a triglyph frieze incorporating patera and guttae below a moulded cornice. The door itself has a segmental arched top and six late 18th-century beaded panels. A segmental arch frames the cellar opening to the right. The rear elevation has timber lintels and some crown glass within 6/6-pane sash windows with thin glazing bars. Inside, a closed-string dogleg staircase, located to the right of the hall, has a moulded handrail and turned balusters. A room on the first floor to the left features a painted fire surround with carved consoles, jambs and lintel, incorporating a late 18th-century cast-iron grate with decorative swags and female figures, flanked by four-panel cupboard doors with cornice, L hinges and a raised and fielded panel above. A room on the first floor of the rear wing contains a dado rail and an Adam-style wooden fire surround with moulded panels to the sides and swags and roundels below a moulded cornice. Attached to the rear left return is a rubblestone wall, approximately 3 metres high and 18 metres long, with occasional dressed slabs and brick jambs marking the former entrance to a rear courtyard. Together with the other houses on Castle Street, this property is an exceptional group due to its scale and ambition outside of London’s West End.