No. 7 Soho Square
The first known occupant of this house was
Colonel Robert Cecil who lived here from 1691,
or earlier, to 1693. Other inhabitants include
Lady Windham,? widow of Sir William Windham, first baronet, 1695 to at least 1697, and
Charles Townshend, second Viscount Townshend, statesman, who was here in 1703. (ref. 33)
Although there is no difference apparent between this house and its neighbours, as shown on
Sutton Nicholls's view of the square reproduced
on Plate 68a, it is clear that No. 7 was a large
house where a succession of aristocratic inhabitants
lived until well into the mid eighteenth century.
The Countess of Leicester, widow of the fourth
Earl, lived here from at least 1706 until her death
in 1709. In September 1711 her second son, the
sixth Earl, leased the house for ten years and eight
months to Richard, second Earl of Bradford, at
the unusually high rent of £190 per annum. A
schedule attached to the lease shows that the house
was handsomely fitted, many of the rooms having
wainscot (the dining-room in cedar wood) and
marble chimneypieces. The fixtures in the great
parlour included 'a marble Chimney peice and
slips, a whole slabb in the foot pace … two marble
slabbs upon four Iron Scroles, two large marble
slabbs on blackwood frames with a marble slipp,
a marble Cistern and marble stand with marble
flags underneath in the floor, a large China
fountaine and Cover with a brass Cock, a large
China Bason'. (ref. 68)
After the expiry of the Earl of Bradford's
lease in 1722 the house was occupied from 1723
to 1744 by William Luckyn, first Viscount
Grimston, (ref. 33) who in June of the latter year assigned
his lease to George Weston of Gerrard Street,
plasterer. (ref. 69) In March 1744/5 Weston was
granted a reversionary lease of the premises by
the second Duke of Portland, subject to a fine
of £150, a ground rent of £25 per annum and a
garden rent of £1 per annum. (ref. 21)
The house was rebuilt, presumably by Weston,
between 1745 and 1748. (ref. 33) The new brick and
stone front (Plate 94a), which survived until
1929, was a striking and handsome composition
in the late Palladian manner, close in style to the
work of Sir Robert Taylor. (fn. *) The ground storey
contained the centrally placed doorway, dressed
with a doorcase of Doric columns supporting a
triangular pediment above a plain entablature
which was returned and continued above the small
flanking windows, to rest on pilasters. The twostoreyed upper face was boldly treated as a great
arch of shallow recession, containing the Venetian
window of the first floor and the three-light
lunette window of the second floor. The brick
arch rose from a plain stone impost, and the front
was effectively finished with a triangular pediment having a stone cornice and a brick tympanum. The Venetian window was finely detailed,
with a balustraded apron, and Ionic plainshafted columns and antae supporting entablatures below the moulded archivolt of the middle
light.
Weston's new house was not occupied until
1749, when it was taken by the Spanish ambassador. No. 7 remained the Spanish embassy until
1761 (ref. 33) (the embassy was later at No. 21), and
during this period a building behind the house was
used as the ambassador's Roman Catholic chapel.
A report in The General Advertiser of 11 October 1749 states that 'A House is taken in
Soho-square, for the Reception of his Excellency
the Spanish Ambassador, and a Chapel is building
behind the said House, towards Oxford-Road, for
the Use of his Excellency and Family; all which
it is thought will be finished by the Beginning of
next Month, by which Time he is expected
hither'. The ambassador's chapel may probably
be identified with the building later occupied from
1818 to 1887 by a congregation of Baptists. The
chapel was rebuilt in 1835, (ref. 70) and the Ordnance
Survey map of 1869–74 (Plate 6) shows that it was
then approached by a passage from Oxford Street.
From 1890 to 1893 it was occupied by the
Huguenots during the building of their new
church at Nos. 8 and 9 Soho Square.
Charles Boone, M.P., of Barking Hall,
Suffolk, and Lee Place, Kent, lived at No. 7
from 1765 to 1787. (ref. 33) In 1793 the house
was taken by John Trotter, the army contractor
who rebuilt Nos. 4–6 as a warehouse for military
stores in 1801–4 and later established the Soho
Bazaar there. At first No. 7 was retained as
Trotter's private house and office and in 1815
the Rev. Joseph Nightingale noted 'the neatness
and elegance of its furnishings. The fine sculptured chimney-piece, of white marble by [Sir
Henry] Chere, is a piece of exquisite workmanship,
every way worthy of that eminent artist. Over
it in the pannel, is an excellent painting by
Canaletti'. (ref. 61) Shortly after Trotter's death in
1833 the house was incorporated into Nos. 4–6
and formed part of the Soho Bazaar. (ref. 33)
The house built by Weston in the 1740's
remained standing until 1929 when it was demolished to make way for the present sevenstorey commercial building, which has a strong
vertical emphasis to its rendered front, and extends
westward to Dean Street. The architects were
Messrs. North, Robin and Wilsdon. (ref. 71)