No. 38 Soho Square (fn. a)
No documentary evidence about the first building of the two houses which stood on the adjoining sites now numbered 38 and 1 Soho Square
has been found, but it is likely that they were
completed by the mid 1680's, and that both
Cadogan Thomas of Lambeth, timber merchant,
and Thomas Taylor of St. Martin's, gentleman,
were involved in their construction. At this time
they were both also concerned in the building of
Kensington Square, (ref. 32) and by 1718 the lease of
both No. 38 and No. 1 Soho Square was in the
possession of Thomas Taylor, described as of
Kensington, esquire. (ref. 21) Robert Ormes, the first
known occupant of No. 38, was living here in
1691. (ref. 33)
In 1696 the lease of No. 38 was purchased for
£860 by Sir Samuel Grimston, the third baronet,
a Hertfordshire landowner and M.P., who had
previously rented No. 30 on the south side of the
square. The money was paid to a Mr. Caesar,
possibly an intermediate lessee whose name appears as 'Saser' in the sewer ratebooks for 1695.
Another £25 were paid to 'Mr. Rossington for
brokeridge' and £2 4s. 'To Mr. Bowes for his
advice on the title'. In 1700 a painter named
Richard Parker was paid £7 for work on the
parlour, closet and staircase. (ref. 34)
Sir Samuel Grimston probably lived here until
his death in 1700. Other inhabitants include
Lord George Howard, c. 1703–12; Richard
Newport, second Earl of Bradford, 1723, who
had previously lived at No. 7 and died here at
No. 38; the Countess of Bradford, his widow,
1724–6, and Charles Hayes,? mathematician and
chronologist, 1731. (ref. 33)
In 1735 the house was demolished and rebuilt
by John Sanger of St. James's, carpenter, to whom
a lease of the property had been granted by the
daughters and co-heiresses of Thomas Taylor,
one of whom was married to the diarist William
Byrd of Westover, Virginia. (ref. 35) At the same time
Sanger was also rebuilding the two adjoining
houses to the north, Nos. 1 and 2 Soho Square,
and the present No. 19 Carlisle Street to the
west. By 1744 Sanger had been declared bankrupt. Two of his assignees in bankruptcy were
Isaac Eles and Francis Jackman, both timber
merchants, who had presumably supplied the
timber for the three new houses. (ref. 36)
Later inhabitants include Sir Robert Smith,
1739–43; Welbore Ellis, M.P., later first Baron
Mendip, 1744–7; Joseph Gulston, M.P.,
financier, 1751–66, and Charles Mordaunt,
fourth Earl of Peterborough, 1768–74. (ref. 33)
There is no evidence that Sanger's house has
ever been rebuilt but it has been so greatly altered
that scarcely a vestige of old work remains inside. It is a building of four main storeys with
another in a mansard roof (Plate 93d). The frontage to the square is three windows in width and
the long return to Carlisle Street is similar to
No. 37 opposite, but at No. 38 the two-storeyed
bay is supported on Doric columns at street level.
The brickwork of the fronts is greatly discoloured,
but some of it, at least, can be seen to be of a rough
texture and red in colour. The partially painted
crowning entablature is ill-proportioned and of
comparatively recent date. The only feature of
any considerable interest is a mid nineteenthcentury shop front of wood facing the square and
returned into Carlisle Street (fig. 7). This has
six engaged Corinthian columns supporting an
entablature with a carved modillion cornice, but
the existing windows and also the entrance, set
in a narrower central intercolumniation, are
later work. The curved wall at the angle of the
front is in stucco but apparently with the wooden
entablature continued above it.
Figure 7:
No. 38 Soho Square, elevation of shop front