No. 15 Soho Square
This is one of the two surviving original
houses in Soho Square (the other being No. 10),
and dates from the late 1670's or early 1680's
when the square was being first laid out. Its
early history has been described above under
No. 12. In 1691 the Countess of Mountrath
was living here. From 1703, or earlier, to 1709
Nos. 14 and 15 were occupied by her son, Charles
Coote, third Earl of Mountrath, but both reverted
to separate occupation in 1711. Later inhabitants
include Colonel Lucas, 1721–5; Colonel Peter
Solegar (Sullenger), 1728–37, who later lived at
No. 23; Dr. Conyers, 1755–60; Sir Stephen
Janssen, fourth baronet, M.P., Lord Mayor of
London, 1766–77; Major Moore, 1777–9,
and Dr. Levison, 1779–80. (ref. 33)
No. 15 is the only house in the square which
gives any idea of its original internal appearance.
The front is the usual three windows wide and is
four storeys in height (Plate 71a). The ground
storey is now stuccoed but those above are of
yellow stock brick with red dressings, the
windows having flat gauged arches and the floor
levels being marked by moulded brick bands.
The top storey is an addition, but the brickwork
below may be largely original. The plan (fig. 11)
is unremarkable, with a narrow entrance hall
leading to a staircase at the back and two rooms
and a closet-wing on each main floor—the same
plan, basically, as that of No. 14. What survives
more or less intact of the original work is the hall
and staircase, the ground-floor rear room and a
plainer room on the second floor; original joinery
remains in an altered state elsewhere. The hall
has three-quarter-height panelling with raised
mouldings and a slightly pointed archway with
panelled jambs and moulded imposts before the
staircase compartment. The dog-legged staircase,
of ample proportion, has typical heavy moulded
strings and handrails with plain square newels
and turned vase-shaped balusters (Plate 126a,
fig. 12). The one nearly complete room on the
ground floor has bolection mouldings to the panelling and to the architrave of the eight-panelled
door. There is a heavy box-cornice (which also
survives in a number of other rooms), and a corner
chimney-breast with a pretty but slight late
eighteenth-century chimneypiece; the journey in
this room is now stripped of paint. The other
main rooms have canvas-lined walls, perhaps over
the framing of the original panelling which survives in the dado of the rear room on the first
floor. Here is a plain flat early eighteenthcentury marble chimneypiece, and in the front
room there is a slightly later one with marble
slips to a carved lugged architrave and an added
shelf. The front room on the second floor has
plain rebated panelling and a very small cornice.
The original bolection-moulded chimneypiece
survives, now painted, and there is a large raised
panel above it.
Figure 11:
No. 15 Soho Square, plans
Figure 12:
No. 15 Soho Square, staircase balustrade