No. 3 Soho Square
In January 1680/1 Richard Frith and William
Pym leased the two houses on the sites of Nos. 3
and 6 Soho Square to Cadogan Thomas of Lambeth, timber merchant, for forty-seven and a half
years from Lady Day 1681. (ref. 46) The houses were
'then in building' by Frith and Thomas, or one or
other of them, at the cost of Thomas, (ref. 17) who was
allowed a peppercorn rent during the first six
months of the two leases, presumably in order to
allow time for him to complete the two houses.
Thereafter the annual rent was to be £115s. for
each house, with an additional ten shillings (ref. 46)
'towards the makeing and keeping in repaire the
Rayles, Payles, Fountaine and Garden in the
middle of the said Square'. (ref. 17) The frontage of
each house was twenty-two feet (ref. 47) and each
curtilage included a stable and coach-house in a
large stable-yard nearby. This yard was to be
shared with John Wells, a tenant of another
unidentified site in the square and probably the
same John Wells, gentleman, who built houses in
Wells (now Lower John) Street, Golden
Square. (ref. 48)
At the end of March 1681 Cadogan Thomas
mortgaged both houses for £300 each to Samuel
Hoyle, citizen and stationer of London. (ref. 47) A
year later Hoyle wished to redeem the mortgage
on one of the houses, but Thomas was unable
to repay him, and Hoyle therefore mortgaged it
to Anthony Edmonds, gentleman. (ref. 17) Shortly
afterwards Benjamin Hinton of London, goldsmith, to whom both Frith and Thomas owed
large sums of money, was declared bankrupt and
in December 1684 they conveyed the equity of
redemption of a number of sites in Soho Square,
including those of Nos. 3 and 6, to the group of
merchants who were the assignees of Hinton's
bankruptcy. (ref. 48) Several Chancery lawsuits ensued,
and ultimately Nos. 3 and 6 appear to have come
into the possession of Captain Edward Le Neve, (ref. 49)
whose family certainly held the leases of both
houses in 1713. (ref. 21)
No. 3 was complete and occupied by 1684
when it was in the possession of the first Earl of
Carlisle. He died in the following year and the
next occupant was a Mr. John Waltson or
Wattson who paid an annual rent of £55. (ref. 48) Sir
Michael Wentworth was living here in 1691. (ref. 33)
Sir John Stonehouse occupied the house from
1707 to January 1715/16 and then let it to Dudley North of Glemham Hall, Suffolk, esquire,
for thirteen years at £70 per annum rent. Stonehouse had already reglazed, painted, whitewashed
and otherwise put the house into good order and
covenanted to repair the foundations before the
following Lady Day. In 1725 the rebuilding of
the adjoining house on the north side, No. 4
Soho Square, necessitated the demolition and
re-erection of the party wall between the two
houses. At the same time No. 3 had to be
propped up, the chimneys underpinned and the
wainscoting on the party wall removed and later
replaced when the rebuilding next door was over.
The bricklayers Thomas Lucas (then rebuilding
Nos. 4 and 5) and Henry Hathwell carried out this
work at a cost of £35. (ref. 50)
In 1735 the house was rebuilt for Edward Le
Neve, who then held the Portland lease. (ref. 51) Later
inhabitants include William Northey, Wiltshire
landowner and M.P., 1743–6, who later lived
at No. 5, and Richard Payne Knight, the savant
and collector, 1808–24, whose accumulations of
antique bronzes, coins and jewels (now in the
British Museum) were first housed here. (ref. 33) <In 1809 a Mr Andrews, builder, added a library for Payne Knight with a cast-iron ceiling.
A perspective and plan of this by C. R. Cockerell was sold by Sothebys in May 1986.>
From 1830 to 1892 the house was occupied
by Messrs. Kirkman, piano makers. (ref. 33) It was
demolished in 1903 for the erection of the
present building (fig. 3), which was designed
by Charles H. Worley. (ref. 52) The assertive front
elevation is of a distinctly Art Nouveau character.
The general form is concave, nearly filled at the
first and second floors by a large stuccoed bow.
The main walling is in a hard red brick with
banded red and grey granite at ground-floor level.
There is a simple rear elevation of brick at No. 7
Dean Street (see page 131), with unusually large
windows.