Mount Row
The present Mount Row was formed from two stable
yards, the longer one being entered from Davies Street and
the shorter, originally known as Bishop's Yard (Plate 88e),
from Charles Street (now Carlos Place). They were
divided in part by a wall and in part by a workshop which
jutted out into the mews approximately in front of the
present No. 13 and which was for many years part of the
premises of the cabinet-making and upholstery concern of
Marsh and Tatham and their successors (see page 317).
This separation had come about because William and
Benjamin Benson, the first occupants of the old Nos. 45
and 46 Grosvenor Street, had the benefit of a building
agreement for a plot of land which extended the whole
depth between Grosvenor Street and Mount Street, and
refused to give up parts of their plot for a public stable
yard, William Benson compounding matters by building a
wall along the western edge of his plot. (ref. 121) The small yard
on the west side of this wall was known as Bishop's Yard
because it served the stables belonging to No. 43
Grosvenor Street, whose first occupant was Bishop
Benjamin Hoadly. The two mews were joined together
when the east side of Carlos Place and the adjacent part of
Mount Street were rebuilt in 1891–3.
The north side of Mount Row was taken up with coachhouses and stabling but on the south side there were a
number of small houses. Seven of these, on either side of
the entrance to Carpenter Street and including the Oliver's
Mount public house on the west corner with that street,
were built by John Jenner, bricklayer. (ref. 122) He himself lived
in one of them, and after his early death in 1728 his widow
continued to live there in impoverished circumstances,
while several of the other houses were let by the room. (ref. 123)
The rebuilding of the south side took place in conjunction
with the redevelopment of Mount Street and is described
on page 322.
The north side of Mount Row has been completely
rebuilt or refronted within the last half century, in some
cases with the same kind of commercial buildings of little
interest to be found in Brook's Mews or Grosvenor Hill,
but also with one range of buildings, all dating from 1926
to 1931, of considerable distinction and charm.
Nos. 6–10 (even) Mount Row
Nos. 6–10 (even) Mount Row comprise a particularly
surprising group of houses in the Tudor style with
carefully laid red brickwork and intricately carved
woodwork which looks to belong more to the Surrey
stockbroker belt than to a Mayfair mews (fig. 24: see also
Plate 51d in vol. xxxix). Designed by Frederick Etchells
and built in 1929–31 by T. Downer, who had previously
done excellent work at the adjoining Wren House (see
below), the group consists of two new houses with a
passage in the middle at ground-floor level leading to a
third house at the rear which was a conversion of one of the
back buildings formerly belonging to No. 52 Grosvenor
Street. (ref. 124) The central passage is lit by a narrow well in the
middle, the walls of which are pargetted with naive
patterns of trees. Similar plasterwork adorns a seat alcove
in the little courtyard in front of No. 8. This seat is
balanced on the east side by an imported lead cistern dated
'1761 S.W.'
Wren House:
Nos. 12 and 14 Mount Row was either
a rebuilding or a drastic conversion of former stabling in
1926–7 by T. Downer of Sarratt, Hertfordshire, to the
designs of T. P. Bennett and Son (ref. 125) (fig. 24: see also Plate
51c in vol. xxxix). Greeted as 'a bold confession of faith in
good brickwork' and 'a most engaging and fresh piece of
work', the building was also praised for its ingenious plan
in which space was found for no less than eight bedrooms
and even a small central area to give more light. (ref. 126)
This essay in the Hampton Court manner of Wren
obviously struck a sympathetic chord with the Grosvenor
Estate, which, by 1928, was 'wishing to refront as many
houses as possible in this street and bring them up to the
same standard'. (ref. 127) T. P. Bennett and Son were accordingly
given the task of supervising the refashioning of several
other buildings in Mount Row.
Nos. 16 and 18 Mount Row
Nos. 16 and 18 Mount Row (fig. 24) were products of
this resolve. No. 16 was a rebuilding of 1929–30 for which
Joseph Emberton was the architect, and was partly
designed as premises for the dressmaking firm of Reville,
Terry at No. 50 Grosvenor Street and partly as an
extension to the Sesame Club which occupied No. 49
Grosvenor Street and its mews buildings at the rear (now
No. 18 Mount Row). Emberton provided an elevation for
the façade to Mount Row which was modified by T. P.
Bennett and Son. The latter, however, had a free hand at
No. 18, which was a straightforward refronting undertaken
in 1929 by George Trollope and Sons for the Grosvenor
Estate. (ref. 128)
Nos. 20 and 22 Mount Row.
The present building on
this site, a five-storey neo-Georgian office block erected in
1935 6 to the designs of J. M. Sheppard and Partners, (ref. 129)
replaced another intricate conversion, done in 1929 by
John Garlick and Sons for which T. P. Bennett and Son
had provided the elevational design (fig. 24) and Clyde
Young the interior planning. (ref. 130)