Nos. 23–25 Soho Square: Stuart House
This building (fig. 5) was erected in 1938–9
to the designs of Gordon Jeeves (ref. 177) on the site of
three houses, Nos. 23, 24 and 25 Soho Square.
It has seven storeys, with two more stepped back
at the top. The front is a discreet but somewhat
impersonal design in buff brick, with an artificial
stone facing to the ground and first storeys.
No. 23
Madam Graham was living here from at least
1691 to 1693; she was succeeded by Sir John
Thompson, Whig politician, who had previously
occupied No. 6 and lived at No. 23 from 1694
until 1696, when he was created Baron Haversham. (ref. 33)
This house and the adjoining No. 24 were both
rebuilt in 1734–5 by James Surman (who had paid
the rates for both houses since 1728) and John
Hoare of St. Andrews, Holborn, carpenter. (ref. 178)
Later inhabitants include Colonel Peter Solegar
(Sullenger), who had previously lived at No. 15,
1738–49; Colonel Samuel Cleveland, 1779–87,
and H. D. Jones, surgeon, 1840–61. (ref. 33)
Tallis (fig. 5) shows the front of No. 23 to have
been four storeys high and three windows wide.
The sash windows were recessed in plain openings
having flat arches of gauged brickwork, and decorative interest was confined to the Regency
Grecian doorcase framing the arched doorway,
and the elegant bowed balcony and tent-roofed
veranda projecting from the first-floor middle
window. A drawing by Hanslip Fletcher (Plate
70a) shows the doorcase and veranda in some
detail, and is evidence that the plain windows
shown by Tallis were subsequently dressed with
stucco architraves, some accented with cornices.
No. 24
The first known occupant of this house was
Reynold(s) Colethrop,? Reynolds Calthorpe of
Elvetham, Hampshire, esquire, who was living
here in 1691. (ref. 33)
In 1734–5 this house and the adjoining No. 23
were rebuilt by James Surman and the carpenter
John Hoare. In May 1734 the latter obtained a
new lease of No. 24 from the Duchess of Portland
for sixty-five years. The rent was a peppercorn
for the first year and £24 per annum thereafter,
with a garden rent of fifteen shillings a year.
No fine was exacted by the Duchess, in consideration of Hoare's building expenses. (ref. 178) Like the
adjoining Nos. 23 and 25, this house was demolished in 1937.
Two drawings by Hanslip Fletcher convey the
character of this house. The front (Plate 70a)
was typical of the 1730's, a plain brick face, four
storeys high and three windows wide, bounded
by slightly projecting piers rising unbroken to the
parapet coping. The sash windows were recessed
in segmental-arched openings, and at the fourthstorey level a boldly profiled cornice extended
between the projecting piers. The Doric porch,
with square-shafted columns, and the first-floor
balcony with its cast-iron railing, were probably
of early nineteenth-century date. The first-floor
front room (Plate 98a) was noteworthy for its
handsome plasterwork, an enriched modillioned
cornice and a Palladian ceiling with Baroque
ornamentation contained in a geometrical arrangement of panels—a central oval set with four
spandrels and four long panels in a large oblong
frame, its corners incurved to accommodate a
quadrant panel in each angle of the ceiling.
No. 25
The first known occupant of this house was
Jeffrey Palmer, who lived here from c. 1691 to
1693, (? Sir Geoffrey Palmer, M.P.). Later residents included Lady Wallop, 1703; Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Whitaker (later at No. 36),
1711–12; Colonel Crosby, 1720–31; Dr.
George Lawson, 1748–54, and Dr. Lagorce,
1755-7. (ref. 33)
In February 1758 Sir William Robinson of
Newby Hall, Yorkshire, baronet, purchased the
lease of No. 25 for £330. (ref. 179) In the following
month he obtained from the Duke of Portland an
extension of this lease to 1854 on payment of a
fine of £120. (ref. 21) The new lease allowed Robinson
to demolish the existing house, to take away from
the south side of the cleared site a strip of ground
two feet three inches in width and to add it to the
adjoining site of No. 26, which he had also lately
bought and cleared for building. (ref. 180) On this
rearranged site he planned to build two new houses
—a 'Great House' on the enlarged southern site
(No. 26) and a 'Little House' on the reduced
northern site (No. 25).
The demolition of the original No. 25 began
in January 1758 and the construction of the
new house in the following April. By October
1759 the house was finished and advertised for
sale, (ref. 181) (fn. a) and in June 1760 Robinson assigned
his leasehold interest in the completed house and
adjoining stables in George (now Goslett)
Yard to another baronet, Sir Thomas Palmer of
Carlton, Northamptonshire. (ref. 182) The latter occupied No. 25 (Plates 70a, 94b) until his death in
1765 and in 1767 the house passed into the possession of Lord Pigot, the occupant of No. 26.
Nos. 25 and 26 were occupied as one residence
until 1799 when they reverted to separate occupation. No. 25 was later occupied by the Rev.
Joseph Jefferson, 1800–05; Francis Const, lawyer, 1807–29, and Thomas Barnes, (ref. 33) editor of
The Times, who died here, 1837–41. (ref. 183)
In 1937 No. 25 was demolished to make way
for the present office block, which extends over
the combined sites of Nos. 23-25.