10, Castle Street

This is a substantial house on Castle Street, built between 1723 and 1728 for James Brydges, Duke of Chandos. It is attributed to Benjamin Holloway or Fort and Shepherd, surveyors working for the Duke in London. The house is constructed of Flemish-bond red brick with moulded stone coping, cornices, cills, brackets, and a doorcase; it has a double-pitched plain tile roof with a flat roof between the ridges, and brick stacks to the gable ends. It follows a double-depth plan and stands three storeys high with an attic and cellar, presenting a symmetrical five-window frontage. Modern, horned plate-glass windows are set within segmental-arched architraves featuring a deeply moulded extrados. The brickwork aligns with the adjacent buildings at numbers 12 and 8, with vertical joints marking the division on the first floor, and a cornice joint to the house on the left. The doorcase is flanked by fluted Ionic pilasters, featuring a moulded architrave with a blocking course that continues around a semi-elliptical arch. This arch has a tall, stepped keystone rising through a pulvinated frieze to a dentilled cornice at first-floor cill level; the doorway has a modern door and panel above.

The interior ground floor features a semicircular arch leading to a rear hall, with a moulded keystone and imposts, and recessed panels to the pilasters. The room to the right has a moulded dado rail with raised-and-fielded panelling above, extending to a dentilled box cornice. A rear wall has been moved forward to create a passage, while on the left is a modern door set within a moulded, eared architrave. The front-left room has had its walls repositioned to form a rear passage and enlarge the main hall. This room contains panelling with a moulded dado rail, some raised and fielded. A painted stone fire surround, moulded to the outer edge with curved corners to the inner edge, and a later mantelshelf, are also present. The door has six raised-and-fielded panels. A room to the rear left was remodelled in the mid-19th century with high skirting boards, a large modern window set in a reeded architrave with block corners and folding panelled shutters. The fire surround is made of white marble with shell pendants to moulded consoles, and the grate dates from around 1920, with brown glazed tiles and a semicircular arch. The houses on Castle Street form an important group, notable for their scale and ambition, unusual outside of London's West End.