Clifford Street, South Side
This is much the less interesting side of the street
and the group of three original houses which
remain, Nos. 16, 17 and 18, lack the special
architectural features found in the houses
opposite (Plate 92a). No. 18, however, which is
larger and of better quality than the other two, is
an unusually complete specimen of builder's
design. The buildings at either side of this group
are all late nineteenth century, being four-storeyed
blocks of offices or apartments. Nos. 15A–D
and 15E are in red brick with vaguely Jacobean
details in stone, while No. 19 is in a plainer
classical style with a facing of cement marked to
imitate stone.
No. 16 Clifford Street
The building lease of this site bore the same
date, 26 March 1723, as the others of the group
of four houses between Cork Street and Old
Burlington Street, and like them allowed the
unusually long building period of four years at a
peppercorn rent. Like them also it was to a
building tradesman. This was Joseph Stallwood,
bricklayer, who was co-lessee of the site of No. 18
with Benjamin Timbrell who was also the lessee
of No. 15 (now 15E). (ref. 256) Stallwood mortgaged
his lease to the same Joseph Hayes who was
mortgagee of No. 9. (ref. 257) In December 1725 the
lease was assigned to the first occupant of the
house, Samuel Sandys of Ombersley, Worcestershire, Member of Parliament, later Chancellor of
the Exchequer, who paid £1950 for the lease. (ref. 258)
Sandys was evidently already in possession of the
house in the month in which he obtained the
lease. (ref. 259) He remained here until shortly before
his creation as Baron Sandys in 1743. He had
been a constant opponent of Walpole, and earned
the disapprobation of Horace Walpole who recorded that he 'never laughed but once, and that
was when his best friend broke his thigh'. (ref. 122)
Architectural Description
This house is well preserved externally, the
only major alterations having been the widening
of the windows in the ground storey and the
lengthening of those in the second storey, where
balconies with wrought-iron railings have been
added (Plate 92a). The front is of resurfaced stock
brick which was probably plum-coloured originally, and comprises a basement and three storeys.
The windows, four to a storey, are widely spaced
with segmental gauged arches and stone sills,
the arches and jambs being carried out in red
brick. All except those in the ground storey
have flush frames, but only in the basement
are the frames original, containing double-hung
sashes with thick glazing-bars. Above each
storey is a raised bandcourse of red brick,
the topmost one being finished with a small
stone cornice, and at the western end is a
narrow pilaster-strip with the stone cornice
breaking forward across it. The pilaster-strip is
now covered with cement, but it formerly had
red-brick quoins. A parapet with a stone coping
finishes the front, but both this and the mansard
roof behind it have been reconstructed. The
doorcase is of painted wood, consisting of a
moulded architrave flanked by half-pilasters,
above which are carved consoles supporting a
cornice. The door has six raised-and-fielded
panels and is recessed within similarly panelled
reveals; there is a plain fanlight above it. The
area-railing has urn-finials to the standards and
attached to it, at either side of the doorway, is a
wrought-iron foot-scraper. The back wall, now
heightened by a fourth storey, is of plum-coloured
brick with a bandcourse of red brick above the
second storey. The windows are segmentalheaded with dressings of red brick and they contain
flush frames; the window lighting the second
half-space landing of the staircase differs, however,
in being tall and round-headed. The projecting
closet-wing is treated like the back wall, but its
quoins are also in red brick.
Little can be said about the plan of the ground
and first floors, which have been drastically
altered, but probably there was the common
arrangement of two rooms and a closet to each
floor, the staircase lying to the west of the back
room. The second-floor plan, however, is unaltered save for the insertion of a few subpartitions. There are four rooms, two at the
front and two at the back, the east back room
having a closet projecting beyond it. All the
rooms are of equal size except for the west back
room which is no more than a closet on the east
side of the staircase compartment. A lobby
opening directly on to the staircase landing gives
separate access to both back rooms, and a second
lobby immediately to the north of it performs the
same function for the two front rooms.
On the ground floor only the entrance passage
has finishings of interest, the floor being paved
with large black and white slabs set diagonally
and the walls lined with two heights of raised-andfielded panelling in one-fillet ovolo-moulded
framing. There is a moulded dado-rail, but the
cornice has been removed. At the end of the
passage, framing the entrance to the stair compartment, are two fluted pilasters supporting a
round arch with a moulded archivolt. There is
now a patterned fanlight in the arch and double
doors below, but these are probably later. The
staircase, which runs from basement to second
floor, is of wood, being built round a narrow well.
The steps have moulded nosings and their outer
ends are decorated with imitation shaped brackets,
each one carrying three turned and twisted
balusters. The slender mahogany handrail is
ramped up over column newels at each landingand
voluted at the bottom over a cluster of balusters.
Above the first floor there are only two rather
thick square balusters to a tread, perhaps renewals
of a later date. The garret is reached by a cramped
little open well stair rising from the top landing of
the main staircase. It has moulded closed strings,
column newels and turned balusters, except tor
the uppermost flight which again has the thick
square ones. No original finishings survive on the
first floor, but on the second floor very little has
been destroyed. The rooms and lobbies are
panelled with two heights of sunk panelling
having one-fillet ovolo-moulded framing and being
finished with moulded dado-rails and boxcornices. Two exceptions to this are that the
front rooms have no dado-rails and the closetwing only plain frames to the panels. The
shutters are panelled like the walls and so are
the four-panelled doors, where they survive. The
fireplaces in the east front and back rooms have
carved wooden architraves and in the closet is a
simple wooden chimneypiece with moulded
edges.
No. 17 Clifford Street
This site was leased under similar conditions to
that of No. 16, by lease dated in March 1723, to
William Pickering, painter, (ref. 260) who in December
1724 assigned the lease for £1100 to the first
occupant, Charles Wither of Hall in the parish of
Deane, Hampshire, Member of Parliament, (ref. 261)
who lived here until his death in 1731. Wither
was Surveyor General of Woods and Forests, and
something of a connoisseur of the arts with an
interest in landscape gardening. (ref. 262) He was a
subscriber to books of architecture by Kent and
Gibbs in 1727–8.
In 1784 a lease for the rest of the Devonshires'
term was granted by the Duke to Doctor John
Moore, the physician and author. (ref. 241) As in other
Devonshire leases there was a requirement to
repair the house. The amount to be spent was
only £226 in the first year, but the first year and a
quarter of the term was at a peppercorn rent,
conceivably to allow for some reconstruction. (ref. 263)
Dr. Moore lived here until 1799 and during this
period his son, General (Sir) John Moore,
sometimes stayed in the house. (ref. 264) Doctor Moore
was succeeded in the house by another eminent
physician, (Sir) Alexander Crichton, who lived
here from 1800 to 1804. (ref. 241) By 1826, however,
the house was occupied by a tailor.
The third or attic floor was in existence in
1836. (ref. 112)
Architectural Description
This is the smallest house of the group. It
contains a basement, four storeys and a garret, and
has a brick front three windows wide (Plate 92a).
The brickwork has been resurfaced but perhaps it
was originally a pale yellow in colour. The fourth
storey is probably a later addition and the ground
storey has been entirely altered, the brickwork
having been covered with channelled stucco and the
basement-area covered in. The segmental-arched
windows are dressed with red brick and have
prominent stone sills on brackets, similar to those
across the road at Nos. 5–7 and probably original
despite their Victorian window-box holders.
Above the second storey is a raised bandcourse of
red brick and above the third storey a stuccoed
bandcourse with a stone cornice. At either end of
the front is a pilaster with red brick quoins and,
above the third storey, a simplified capital with a
capping of stone. The back wall has been rebuilt
in purple-yellow brick.
The plan is the common one of two rooms and
a closet to each floor, except that the closet is
larger than usual with two windows in each
storey. The finishings on the ground and first
floors are surprisingly complete, although the
front and back rooms on the ground floor have
been knocked into one. Some of the work,
however, is probably imitation, particularly in the
first-floor rooms, which now form part of No. 18
(Buck's Club). The panelling is raised-andfielded with one-fillet ovolo-moulded framing,
and is finished with moulded dado-rails and boxcornices. In the entrance passage the panelling is
complete, and at the end, flanking the entrance to
the stair compartment, are two plain-shafted Doric
pilasters. The staircase is dog-legged, rising to the
fourth storey where there is a gallery-balustrade.
The lower part has cut strings with carved stepends, each tread carrying three turned balusters,
and at the landings are column newels with the
moulded handrail extending over them. The
upper flights differ in having moulded closed
strings and a different type of turned baluster.
The compartment is panelled like the rest of the
house, the third storey having only plain rebated
panelling and the topmost flight only a dado.
No. 18 Clifford Street: Buck's Club
This house differed from almost all the others
on the Burlington estate in that the first occupant,
John, Lord (later first Earl) De La Warr, seems
never to have held the lease, either direct from
Burlington or from the building lessee. The lease,
bearing the same date in March 1723 as those of
the other three sites east of Cork Street, was
granted to two builders, the carpenter Benjamin
Timbrell and the bricklayer Joseph Stallwood, (ref. 265)
who in the following year mortgaged it to Joseph
Hayes (see above) to secure £1200. (ref. 266) Ratebook
entries are not available for this part of the street
in 1725 or 1726: Lord De La Warr appears as
occupant in 1727 and continued to pay the
rates until 1740. The rainwater-head lettered
GR may well have been placed on the front of the
house by this soldier and courtier to celebrate
George II's accession in 1727, perhaps the year
he himself entered the house, but the accompanying date 1717 is certainly inapplicable to the first
building of the house: it is conceivably a mistaken
restoration of the date 1727. Lord De La Warr's
diplomatic and military career did not preclude an
interest in the arts: he subscribed to Leoni's
Palladio in 1715, and to Gibbs's Book of Architecture in 1728, and participated actively, as an
opponent of Handel, in the musical factions of the
day. In 1733 he was chosen, with Lord Burlington and others, a Director of the Opera, (ref. 267) A
caricature of his features appears among others of
Burlington's acquaintances in William Kent's
sketch-books at Chatsworth.
Buck's Club was founded here in June 1919 by
Captain H. J. Buckmaster 'and a number of
fellow officers of the Blues'. The adjacent
premises in Old Burlington Street were acquired
in 1925 or 1926 and converted into a Ladies'
Annexe in 1932: the site had originally been
part of the yard or garden behind the house. In
September 1940 the house was badly damaged by
enemy action. (ref. 268)
Architectural Description
This house contains a basement, three storeys
and a garret, with fronts to Clifford Street and
Old Burlington Street each five windows wide,
although towards Clifford Street the windows are
much more closely spaced (Plate 92a, fig. 89).
The fronts, which retain most of their original
character, are of a resurfaced pale yellow brick
with dressings of red brick to jambs, arches,
bandcourses and quoins. The main front to
Clifford Street has windows with segmental
gauged arches, stone sills and recessed box-frames,
the latter containing modern barred sashes. There
are raised bandcourses above the ground and second
storeys and a pilaster-strip at the eastern end. The
doorcase is of painted wood, consisting of a
moulded architrave and a cornice on carved consoles, while before it, springing from an arearailing with urn-finials to the standards, is an
over-throw lampholder containing a nineteenthcentury lamp. There are two old lead rainwater
pipes, one with a head inscribed 17 GR 17
although the documentary evidence makes it clear
that the date cannot be original. The mansard
roof, and possibly also the parapet in front of it,
have been reconstructed. The Old Burlington
Street front has very much the same character
except that the windows have flat gauged arches
and many of them are blind, whilst there is a
pilaster-strip at each end. The wall is carried up
for a fourth storey, perhaps a later addition, and at
the southern end it has been rebuilt in new brick
following bomb damage in 1940. There are
two doorways; one, opening directly on to the
service stairs, has a modern surround and hood;
the other, in the second bay from the south and
now out of use, has a stone doorcase, perhaps
original, composed of a shouldered architrave
flanked by panelled pilasters, being finished with a
cornice on carved consoles. At the southern end
of this front is the Ladies' Annexe of Buck's, a
single-storeyed brick building quaintly fronted
with imitation timber-framing with a bow
window at one end.
Figure 88:
No. 18 Clifford Street, plans
Figure 89:
No. 18 Clifford Street, section and elevation
The plan of the house seems to have retained its
original form almost unchanged, although, since
the back wall has been entirely rebuilt, it is difficult
to be certain of this (figs. 88–9). On the ground
and first floors the front part of the house is
divided between a large room, with three windows on to Clifford Street, and the main staircase
compartment, the latter being replaced by a
second room on the second floor, where a small
lobby gives separate access to both front rooms.
Behind the west front room is another large room,
extended in the second and third storeys by a later
canted bay window supported on iron columns.
Behind the main staircase lies the secondary staircase and behind that in turn lies the east back
room, projecting slightly at the back and having
the south-west angle splayed. Beyond it projects a small closet, to which a bay window has
been added in the second storey. In the courtyard a single-storeyed wing of later date links the
west side of the house with the Ladies' Annexe.
On the ground floor the front room and the west
back room have been joined together to form the
dining-room, while the east back room is used as a
cloak-room and the closet as a wash-room. There
seems originally to have been an angle chimneypiece in the cloak-room like that on the second
floor, but it has been removed at some date to
make room for a porch to a later doorway and the
panelling now encloses a telephone-box. On the
first floor the east wall of the front room has been
removed to make a lounge opening directly on to
the main staircase. The west back room is the
lounge bar and the east back room and the closet
have been thrown together to make a snack bar,
an angle chimneypiece having been removed in the
process. The three first-floor rooms of No. 17
also belong to the club, the front room forming a
reading-room and the back room a card-room.
The closet is sub-divided between a televisionroom and a telephone-room.
The rather plain original finishings of the
house are remarkably complete, although some of
the panelling has been restored. However, some of
the details, in particular the carved overdoors and
the moulded plaster ceilings, are rather crude
imitations of early and mid eighteenth-century
work. The ground- and first-floor rooms
generally have raised-and-fielded panelling in two
heights with one-fillet ovolo-moulded frames to
the panels, moulded dado-rails and box-cornices,
the doors and shutters being similarly panelled.
The second floor is treated in the same way except
that the panels are not raised and fielded. The
chimneypieces are mostly of marble and in a
variety of styles, dating from the nineteenth
century or later. However, there are two which
are probably original, in the ground-floor closet
and the second-floor west front room. Both
are of white marble, the former with simply
moulded edges, the latter with panelled jambs and
lintel and slight imposts, the lintel being shaped on
the underside. The main staircase is a fine piece
of workmanship and the best feature of the house
(fig. 90). It rises round three sides of the compartment with a gallery on the west side at firstfloor level. The cut strings are decorated with
architrave-mouldings and have unusually fine
carved step-ends in high relief, the moulded
nosings of the treads being carried round above
them. The turned and twisted balusters, three to
a tread, support a moulded handrail which is
ramped up at the landings over fluted, Composite
column newels and voluted at the bottom. The
panelled dado is ramped to follow the curve of
the handrail, and attached to it are pilasters
echoing the newels. The simple secondary staircase is dog-legged with closed strings, turned
balusters, moulded handrail and column newels.
Figure 90:
No. 18 Clifford Street, staircase balustrade