CHAPTER XXX
Park Place, South Side
Nos. 8–14 (consec.) Park Place and Nos.
61–62 St. James's Street occupy the site of
a tenement called the Antelope (I on fig.
81) which was one of the pieces of the Pulteney
estate acquired c. 1668–70 by the Duchess of
Cleveland. (ref. 1) The Duchess's trustees had purchased
the under-lease from John Collup, the royalist
writer, (ref. 2) and tenant of Sir William Pulteney. (ref. 1) The
latter's interest in the property was not due to
expire until 1702, (ref. 3) but in 1690 the Duchess's son,
the Duke of Grafton, obtained a grant from the
Crown of the freehold (see below) and probably
purchased Sir William's interest. It may be
assumed that the Duchess and her trustees were
responsible for the development of the property.
By 1680 the Antelope had been 'for the most
part demolished', (ref. 4) and shortly afterwards Park
Place was laid out, the south side on the site of the
Antelope and the north side on the southern edge
of the Six Acre Field. The boundary between the
two properties coincided with the parish boundary
which runs along the centre of the street, and the
houses on the north side, being in the parish of St.
George, Hanover Square, are not described in this
volume.
The south side of Park Place was built up first.
There is a reference in January 1681/2 to 'Mr.
Rossington's new buildings' which can be identified with houses on the south side of Park Place,
the north side clearly being unbuilt at that time. (ref. 5)
Rossington presumably held a lease from the
Duchess of the Antelope site and was almost certainly the John Rossington (ref. 6) who later purchased
other parts of the Cleveland House estate. There
are several references to John Rossington and
Robert Rossington in the minutes of the Commissioners of Sewers, recording their building activities in Park Place in association with George
Lane, carpenter, William Stroud, bricklayer, and
Edward Martin, plasterer. (ref. 7) Rossington built six
houses on the south side of the street and all were
occupied by 1683. (ref. 8) Building on the north side
appears to have been in the hands of Richard Frith
and his associates, and the two groups co-operated
in the laying of drains. (ref. 9)
The Antelope site was among the six pieces of
land granted in fee by the Crown to Henry, Duke
of Grafton, in 1690 (see page 493) and was the
only piece to be retained by the Duke after 1693. (ref. 10)
The property descended to his son Charles, Duke
of Grafton, (ref. 11) who in 1732 granted a life annuity
of £300 to his son, Charles Fitzroy, issuing out of
'all his messuages in Parke Place'. (ref. 12) The Duke
had conveyed five messuages on the site of the
Antelope to Thomas Gibson and John Jacob in
1728, (ref. 13) but evidently retained his title to the
property.
In 1736 he secured for himself, his tenants,
and their successors, a passageway from Park
Place into St. James's (now Green) Park by
agreement with John Henry Merttins. (ref. 14) Merttins was the owner of the house at the end of Park
Place (No. 6, in the parish of St. George, Hanover
Square), which he was then letting for rebuilding, (ref. 15)
and a passage three feet six inches wide was left
on the south side of the new house for the private
use of the residents of Park Place. The Duke
covenanted that a rent of £14 a year for this
privilege would be charged on No. 8 and Merttins
covenanted to maintain the iron door leading into
the park and to pave the passage. (ref. 16) The passage
can be seen on the map reproduced on Plate 7,
running along the south side of No. 6 (Over-Seas
House).
In 1742 the Duke of Grafton obtained an Act
of Parliament vesting his 'very old and ruinous'
houses in Park Place in trustees in order that they
might be sold. The money arising out of the sale
was to be applied towards the purchase of an estate
in Suffolk near the Duke's seat at Euston. (ref. 17) The
houses, which included Nos. 8, 9 (which had been
in the Duke's own occupation since 1734), 10 and
11 (then a single house), Nos. 12, 13 and 14 Park
Place and Nos. 61–62 St. James's Street, were
sold by the Duke and his trustees in November
1742 to Samuel Clarke, of St. George's, Hanover
Square, for £6000. In the same month Clarke
granted a thousand-year lease of each house to
Joseph Dunning, peruke maker, who had provided £2100 of the purchase money. (ref. 18) Dunning
appears in the ratebooks at No. 13 in 1749–50
and 1754–9. (ref. 8)
Nos. 7–8 Park Place
The existing building on this site was erected in
1891–2 (see below) in place of two houses. No. 7,
the westerly house, was described in 1742 as a
house in Rosamund (a corruption of Rossington?)
Court, (ref. 19) and until 1808 it was rated in St.
James's Place. (ref. 8) It had been built on the northeast corner of Cleveland House garden—not the
Antelope site—and was accessible from both Park
Place and St. James's Place (see fig. 81).
No. 8, the most westerly house erected on the
Antelope site, had several occupants of note. They
included Charles Stanhope, politician, 1731–60;
Edward Weston, didactic writer, 1761–6; Earl
Percy, M.P. for Westminster 1763–76, later
second Duke of Northumberland, 1767–9;
Robert Palk,? Sir Robert Palk, Governor of
Madras, who was created a baronet in 1772,
1772–5, 1779; General Thomas Gage, Governor of Massachusetts, 1776–8; Admiral Hugh
Pigot, 1780–92; (ref. 20) Thomas Creevey, politician,
1804–9; (ref. 21) Frederick John Robinson, later
Viscount Goderich and Earl of Ripon, Prime
Minister, 1816–17, ? 1821–2; and Lieutenant-General Jonathan Peel, politician and patron of
the turf, 1844–71. (ref. 22)
The present Nos. 7–8 Park Place, now known
as Old St. James's House, was built in 1891–2 by
Stanley George Bird from the designs of Hyman
Henry and Marcus Evelyn Collins of Old Broad
Street (Plate 276b). (ref. 23) The building might be
described as a fantasy on the medieval French
château, though executed for the most part in the
heaviest Victorian manner. An L-shaped site
made a symmetrical composition almost impossible
and the architects concentrated on filling the vista
from St. James's Street with a romantic cluster of
bay windows and turrets. The building is of red
brick lavishly dressed with stone and contains four
storeys raised high upon a semi-basement. Granite
columns divide the wider windows, and wroughtiron railings decorate it at every available point,
while the blank wall on the east is covered
with elaborate panels of moulded brickwork.
Dominating the main front, towards the north, is
a three-storeyed bay window, the ground storey of
which has a cumbersome porch projecting on
four granite columns. From the northernmost
pair of columns springs a round arch with carved
spandrels and keystone and above it runs a tall
carved frieze and a cornice surmounted by a pair
of urn finials. The angle of the L is filled with a
turret rising through the second and third storeys,
and on the eastern angle of the building is another
turret, perhaps the only elegant feature of the
design, its top storey being arcaded, with round
arches springing from slender granite columns,
and its roof a tall cone decorated with Gothic
tracery.
The interior was originally planned with fortyfour sets of residential chambers, with their
attendant service rooms.
No. 9 Park Place
Demolished in 1959
This was the largest and architecturally the
most interesting house in Park Place. Occupants
have included Charles Boyle, Lord Clifford,
1683–7; (ref. 24) the Duchess of Cleveland, after her
return from residence in France, 1698–9; the
Duke of Leinster, later third Duke of Schomberg,
1691–3; and General Henry Lumley, Governor of Jersey, 1702–22. (ref. 20) Charles Fitzroy,
second Duke of Grafton and grandson of the
Duchess of Cleveland, as Lord Chamberlain, used
the house as his office from 1734 to 1742, (ref. 25) when
he disposed of his estate in Park Place. The house
was subsequently occupied by Sir John Hynde
Cotton, the Jacobite member of Parliament,
1747–51. (ref. 20)
This brick-built house (Plate 266b) was set
some sixteen feet back from the general building
line of the street, and comprised a basement, four
storeys and a garret. That it occupied the site of the
original house is clear from Blome's map of 1689,
but drastic alteration, including the addition of an
extra storey and the rebuilding of the back wall,
had left little more of the original than the staircase and, possibly, some portions of the front wall.
The front elevation had five flat-headed windows
in each storey, the doorway being central in the
ground storey, and raised stuccoed bandcourses
marked the first-, second- and third-floor levels.
The windows contained modern sashes in concealed frames and any evidence of reconstruction
had been obscured by the addition of rusticated
stucco to the ground storey and red paint to the
brickwork above. The area-railing, with urn
finials to the standards, suggested that the house
was altered in the mid eighteenth century, and
other alterations had taken place in the early nineteenth century when the Doric porch was added.
The ground-floor plan consisted of two equalsized rooms flanking a wide entrance hall, beyond
which, built out at the back, was a staircase wing.
The hall was divided from the western room by a
structural wall which was carried up to the first
floor where there were again two rooms, the
eastern being the larger and having three front
windows. The staircase was constructed round an
open well and originally extended only to the
second floor. The first flight of five treads had an
open string with three balusters to a tread and the
handrail voluted over a group of balusters clustered round the bottom newel. The rest of the
staircase had closed strings, twisted balusters and a
handrail ramped up over square newels at each
landing. The interior of the house must have
been largely redecorated in the early nineteenth
century, but more recent changes had left little of
note save two marble chimneypieces of 'Louis
Seize' character in the western rooms on the first
and second floors.
Nos. 10 and 11 Park Place
Demolished
This site was originally, as now, occupied by a
single building. Two occupants of the first house
on the site were John Vaughan, Earl of Carbery,
M.P. and Governor of Jamaica, 1687–90, and
General Lord George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney,
1698–9. (ref. 20) In 1799–1800 the single house was
replaced by two, Nos. 10 and 11, which were
occupied by (No. 10) Thomas Wallace,? Baron
Wallace, politician, 1801–6; William Wadd,
surgeon, 1807–30; John Cooper,? actor, 1844–
1852; and (No. 11) Charles Kemble, actor,
1837–9. (ref. 22) In 1852 No. 10 was converted by
Mrs. Mary Croxton into a lodging-house or hotel
to which No. 11 was subsequently added. This
establishment later became known as the Park
Hotel. (ref. 26)
Nos. 12 and 13 Park Place
No. 12 was first occupied by John Pulteney, the
son of Sir William, who lived here from 1683 to
1690. Between 1748 and 1792 the house was
occupied by the Calmell family. (ref. 8) Peter Calmell
paid the rates for the house from 1750 until his
death in 1790; (ref. 27) during the early part of his period
of residence he was engaged in the erection of
Hammersmith Terrace. (ref. 28) Nineteenth-century
inhabitants included Sir William Elford, banker,
politician and amateur artist, 1805–9; and William Crockford, the proprietor of Crockford's
Club, 1815–20. (ref. 20) From 1845 to 1886 the
house was used as part of Fenton's Hotel. (ref. 26)
Nothing has come to light about the history of
No. 13 and none of its occupants are worthy of
notice.
No. 12, although its front has been altered in
the first half of the nineteenth century to give it a
superficial resemblance to Nos. 13 and 14 (Plate
266a), is in carcase a brick-built house of the late
seventeenth century. Containing a basement,
three storeys and a garret, it has a stuccoed front
three windows wide, the doorway occupying the
eastern opening in the ground storey. Raised
bandcourses mark each floor level and all the windows contain box-frames, although probably not
the original ones. Apart from the stucco the
nineteenth-century additions consist of a plain
area-railing, a widened, round-arched doorway,
and a first-floor balcony with an anthemionpatterned cast-iron railing. The back wall is
similar to the front, with bandcourses at first- and
second-floor levels, and its windows have boxframes. The house has a standard plan of two
rooms to each floor with a closet wing projecting
on the east, behind the staircase compartment.
The entrance hall is unusually wide, but this may
have been altered in the nineteenth century. The
finishings are of no particular interest, being of the
plainest early nineteenth-century type.
It is impossible to see whether No. 13 has ever
been completely rebuilt, since its front has been
stuccoed, probably in the first half of the nineteenth century, and its back wall replaced in
modern yellow brick. The basement windows,
however, contain box-frames and this does suggest
that at most the walls can only have been rebuilt
above ground level. The proportions of its front
correspond to those of No. 12, except that the
third-storey windows are slightly taller and there
is a fourth storey instead of a garret. The ground
storey is rusticated, with a decorative area-railing
in front of it, and the door has a reeded wooden
frame. In the upper storeys all the windows have
moulded architraves and there is a first-floor balcony similar to the one at No. 12, while the thirdfloor level is marked by an entablature. The plan
of the interior is identical with that of No. 12,
except that there is no projecting closet wing. The
first-floor rooms could not be investigated but the
remainder of the interior, which has been much
altered, is plainly finished in an early nineteenth-century manner.
No. 14 Park Place: Pratt's Club
No. 14 has been occupied since about the middle
of the nineteenth century by Pratt's Club. It is
said that in 1841 the Duke of Beaufort, being
bored with his usual haunts of amusement, took
some friends one night to the house in Park Place
where his steward, Pratt, lived and let rooms.
They spent the evening gaming and drinking in
Pratt's kitchen. Repetition of this practice hardened into custom and even after the rooms above
stairs became available, club members still preferred to use the basement for their convivial
evenings. (ref. 29)
William Nathaniel Pratt first appears at No. 14
in the ratebook for 1841. Until 1856 the premises
were listed in the directories as a private hotel, but
from 1857 onwards as Pratt's club-house. (ref. 30) After
Pratt's death in 1860 (ref. 31) the club was carried on by
his widow, Sophia, and then by his son, Edwin.
The Pratt family's connexion with the club
ceased in 1908. It is still privately owned and
since 1926 the proprietor has also owned the
freehold of the house. (ref. 32) The present owner is the
Duke of Devonshire. (ref. 29)
Although the building has been much altered
it remains basically a town house of the most
modest type, forming a terrace along with Nos. 12
and 13 (Plate 266a). It was probably renovated in
the 1840's when the club was founded and not
much work of an earlier date remains. However,
the front basement windows do still contain boxframes and the back wall is wholly timber framed,
a feature which is common to the small late
seventeenth-century houses built by the Rossingtons in St. James's Place. The stuccoed front is
similar to that of No. 13, but elaborated with a few
extra details. The second-storey windows have
cornice-hoods supported by consoles, and before
the third-storey windows, resting on the cornicehoods, are guard-rails cast in a wheat-eared
pattern. There is no fourth storey and instead the
entablature at third-floor level is finished with a
balustrade.
The plan of the house is identical with that of
No. 13 and the interest of the interior lies in its
decorative features. These, though individually
good, do not form part of any general design and
are confined to the ground floor and the basement
where most of the club's activities take place. The
two ground-floor rooms have been made into one,
now the billiard-room, the southern end being partially screened off by two fluted Ionic columns of
wood, and the entrance hall is separated from the
staircase compartment by a pair of heavy double
doors, each with six raised-and-fielded panels in
ovolo-moulded frames enriched with egg-and-dart
moulding, having a simple traceried fanlight over
them. The atmosphere of the basement, divided
into dining-room and kitchen, derives mainly from
the aged leather-upholstered chairs, stuffed fishes in
glass cases and other relics which crowd the rooms,
all of them effectively set off by dark-red wallpaper and dim lighting. Against the dividing wall
on the kitchen side are two wooden three-quarter
columns similar to those on the floor above. There
are two good white marble chimneypieces, the one
in the kitchen large enough to hold a range. Both
chimneypieces have pilasters inlaid with green
marble applied to their jambs and the lintels are
carved in low relief, with Grecian figures in the
dining-room and reminiscently Etruscan ones in
the kitchen.