East Side
Audley House: Nos. 8–10 (consec.)
Audley House: Nos. 8–10 (consec.), a neo-Georgian
block of flats in red brick with stone dressings, was erected
in 1927–9 with an elevational treatment largely dictated by
Sir Edwin Lutyens.
In 1919 Selfridges, the department store, had entered
into a building contract to develop the site but nothing was
done for six years. Then in 1925 Delissa Joseph prepared a
scheme for a six-storey, seven-windows-wide building
with a pediment, probably for Selfridges, but by January
1927 Selfridges' rights to the site had been taken over by J.
Stanley Beard, an architect, and Frank Bradford. New
designs were prepared by Beard for shops and flats and the
building was erected by J. W. Falkner and Sons. (ref. 25) Beard
and Bradford were required by the Estate to build 'in
accordance with the elevation prepared by Sir Edwin
Lutyens', (ref. 26) and a surviving sketch by Lutyens (ref. 27) shows that
the North Audley Street elevation is substantially his
conception, although perhaps owing something to
Joseph's original design for the site. There are also detailed
drawings of the elevations to both North Audley Street
and Providence Court in the hand of George Stewart, one
of Lutyens's chief assistants. (ref. 28) Lutyens was paid £315 by
the Duke of Westminster's trustees for his services in
connexion with the building. (ref. 29)
Nos. 11 and 12
Nos. 11 and 12, the only survivors from the original
development of the street, have at times been occupied
jointly and at other times separately in a bewilderingly
complex succession of tenures.
Both houses were built by Edward Shepherd, the
builder and architect, on part of the return frontage of the
large plot previously mentioned which extended northward from Grosvenor Square to North Row. The
ratebooks show that both were in existence by 1730, but
No. 11 may have been first occupied in the previous year.
They were initially let by Shepherd at rack rentals and sold
by him some years later.
No. 12, the more imposing house of the two, was first
occupied by, and presumably built for, Jean Louis
Ligonier, a Huguenot refugee who eventually became
commander-in-chief of the army and an earl. (ref. 30) He paid
Shepherd an annual rent of £105 until he bought the house
for an unknown amount in 1735. (ref. 31) The first occupant of
No. 11 was Mark Antony Hauduroy, a painter who
decorated a ceiling in another of Shepherd's houses in
Cavendish Square and was also employed at Knole where
some of his work survives. (ref. 32) Hauduroy was also of French
extraction, and in view of the complex planning of the two
houses it is possible that he and Ligonier were in some way
associated. The rack rent for this house was £20 until it
was bought in 1737 by its second occupant, Captain
Robert Booth, a relative of the Earl of Warrington, for
£180 with a ground rent of £4 per annum payable to
Shepherd. (ref. 33)
Plans made in the early nineteenth century indicate that
at the front both houses had a basement and three storeys
above ground. (ref. 34) But, as the respective rack rents suggest,
the two houses differed very greatly in size. Although their
frontages were not very dissimilar the two sites interlocked
at the rear, some of the backs rooms of No. 12 extending
behind No. 11, the rear part of which was only ten feet
wide. The site of No. 12 also extended a few feet behind
No. 13 on the other side. It included a large garden with a
building of unspecified use at the end, which was
connected to the house by arcaded covered ways, and there
were also stables and a coach-house facing Providence
Court. (ref. 35) No. 11 was, in fact, smaller than has long been
supposed, for recently discovered site plans (ref. 36) show that the
area occupied by the rear room on the ground floor, most of
which was in 1948–9 transferred to No. 12, was in reality
originally part of the site of No. 12 (see fig. 29). This
explains the existence of carving on both sides of the south
door of the gallery of No. 12 which now communicates
with this room, and which was previously presumed to
have originally been only a false door.
The interior of No. 11 displays little more than a refined
speculative builder's taste, but in No. 12 both the
ingenuity of the plan and the quality of the decorative
features suggest that something very special was intended
from the first (Plate 25c, 25d, figs. 29–30: see also Plate 11 in
vol. XXXIX). Certain characteristics of the gallery at the rear
have given rise to the speculation that the house was built
at least in part to the designs of the Irish Palladian architect
(Sir) Edward Lovett Pearce. (ref. 37) Ligonier was Colonel of the
8th Horse, a regiment on the Irish establishment, and
Pearce designed a house (probably never built) for him
near Dublin. (ref. 38)
(fn. a) The case for Pearce's connexion with No.
12 North Audley Street, however, rests chiefly on the
similarity of the gallery there to a grotto which he designed
at Stillorgan. This contains seven compartments whereas
the gallery has only three, but the general proportions and
the combination of a large domed central compartment
with smaller flanking groin-vaulted ones are similar. (ref. 39)
Several features at No. 12 North Audley Street recall
Pearce's work elsewhere, and the idea of placing an
octagonal room at or near the centre of the house was one
on which he was working in sketch-plans. (ref. 40)
There are difficulties, however, in making a definite
attribution to Pearce, for he appears to have lived
permanently in Ireland from 1726 until his death in 1733
and there is no indication that he visited England during
that time. (ref. 41) It is unlikely that the houses in North Audley
Street could have been begun as early as 1726 for although
Shepherd then held the land under a building agreement
he concentrated initially on building on the Grosvenor
Square frontage, and the evidence of the ratebooks also
militates against such an early date. Moreover Ligonier
was then living at No. 10 Old Burlington Street, of which
he was granted a building lease in 1719, and where he
continued to live until he sold the house in 1730. (ref. 42) So if
Pearce did provide designs for No. 12, it seems that they
must have been made in Ireland, and that Ligonier
entrusted their execution to Shepherd. At first sight this
seems an unlikely hypothesis, but for a remark made by
Mrs. Pendarves (later Mrs. Delany) in a letter of 1731 to
her sister— 'You must send to Capt Pierce for a plan to
build a house, and then I am sure it will be pretty and
convenient'—which implies that Pearce was thought to act
in some such way. (ref. 43)
<
The attribution to Pearce is greatly strengthened by the discovery that Summerhill,
a demolished house in Co. Meath, believed to have been designed by Pearce, had a room
identical in plan-form and dimension to the drawing-room at No. 12 North Audley Street;
and also by evidence of Pearce's presence in England in 1730-1 as arbitrator in a dispute
between Viscount Shannon and Roger Morris over work at Ashley Park, Surrey.
(information from Dr. Maurice Craig, 1981, and from records of the Exchequer.)
>
Viewed from the garden the single-storey gallery looks
like an addition (Plate 25b), and this has given rise on the
one hand to the absurd notion that it existed prior to the
house as a trysting place for the Countess of Suffolk and
the Prince of Wales, later George II, (ref. 44) and, on the other
hand, to the theory that it was an extension to the house,
built at a later date. Although in terms of plan the latter is
feasible, both the vocabulary of the architecture and the
manner of its execution suggest the early eighteenth
century, and if Pearce was the architect the gallery must be
contemporary with the rest of the house.
The two houses remained in separate occupation until
1744, when Ligonier purchased No. 11 from Captain
Booth's widow for £210. (ref. 45) He then lived in the enlarged
house until his death in 1770, when he bequeathed a life
interest in it to his nephew Edward, who was later created
Earl Ligonier in the peerage of Ireland. (ref. 46) He, in turn, lived
there until his death in 1782. Sir John St. Aubyn, fifth
baronet, M.P., was tenant from 1786 until 1792, (ref. 47) but
shortly afterwards the house and its extensive grounds
were taken by the Gillows, the noted Lancaster family of
furniture-makers and decorators. The purpose for which
they used the house is unclear, for the firm already had
premises on the north side of Oxford Street, (ref. 48) but they
built workshops in the grounds, probably entered from
Balderton (formerly George) Street, where a 'Mr Gillow'
was first rated in 1793. (ref. 12) From 1795 until 1814 the rated
occupants of the combined Nos. 11 and 12 were Robert
and George Gillow, probably the younger sons of Richard
Gillow, the cabinet-maker and architect who died in
1811. (ref. 49) It is possible that the medallions containing heads
of Popes Clement IX and X over the doorways of the
gallery were introduced at this time, for it is inconceivable
that Ligonier, a staunch Protestant, would have countenanced such decorative features. The Gillows, however,
were a staunchly Roman Catholic family and the gallery
may even have been used by them as a private chapel.
In 1813 the Gillows' workshops were badly damaged by
fire. Soon afterwards they applied to renew all of the
ground which they held, but declined the terms offered. (ref. 50)
They then let the house to Lord Robert Fitzgerald from
1815 to 1817, and he was followed by James Hakewill, the
architect. (ref. 51) Hakewill appears to have been engaged in a
speculative capacity elsewhere on the estate at this time
and he too applied for renewal terms, having been
informed by the Gillows that they no longer wished to treat
for the house itself. William Porden, the estate surveyor,
assessed Nos. 11 and 12 as one building, but on this
occasion he separated the house from the extensive back
buildings, leaving a much smaller garden which has
continued to form part of the curtilage of No. 12 down to
the present time. Hakewill accepted Porden's terms, and
asked that the lease should be made to Viscount
Ebrington. (ref. 52)
The latter was the eldest son of the first Earl Fortescue,
who lived nearby at No. 18 Grosvenor Square. (ref. 10) In
addition to the renewal fine of £1,474 payable to Lord
Grosvenor, Lord Ebrington also paid Hakewill £700 as
purchase money for the house. He took up residence early
in 1819 but moved to his father's house in Grosvenor
Square in July of that year while works costing some
£1,750 were undertaken in North Audley Street. The
architect for the alterations was Thomas Lee (presumably
the younger), a Devonshire architect who was no doubt
employed because the Fortescues' country seat was at
Castle Hill in Devon. It was probably at this time that the
stucco façade with its neo-Grecian pilasters was added
(Plate 25a), conceivably by Hakewill before he sold the
house, but more probably by Lee. One of the plasterers
employed by Lee was 'Bernasconi', but his account was for
the relatively small amount of £15. (ref. 53)
Viscount Ebrington retained the house until 1831, (ref. 12)
when he let it to Thomas Raikes, the dandy. (ref. 47) Raikes left to
live in Paris in 1833 and the house seems to have remained
empty until 1835 when the lease was purchased by Wright
Ingle, a builder active on the estate at this time. (ref. 54) He redivided Nos. 11 and 12, although not according to their
original plots, and must have added another entrance door
and possibly made other alterations to the façade. (ref. 55) The
tall attic storey with a mansard roof was added to No. 11 in
1850, (ref. 56) and on this floor are three good cast-iron fireplaces
of that date. The two houses continued to be occupied
separately until after the war of 1939–45.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century both houses
were threatened by plans for rebuilding the area to the
north of Grosvenor Square. As early as 1883, however, the
Estate's officers and the first Duke of Westminster showed
a marked reluctance to countenance the demolition of No.
12 on account of its fine interior, and No. 11 was saved
because of its association with No. 12 and the fortuitous
fact that the two houses now had a common façade. (ref. 57)
Similar reasons persuaded the second Duke to override the
firm advice of his Board that No. 11 should be demolished
in 1913–14. (ref. 58) Leases of No. 12 in the 1920's contained
additional covenants that no alterations were to be made to
the architectural appearance or decorations of the interior
without the Estate's consent. (ref. 59)
In 1883 William Wells, whose wife, Lady Louisa, was a
daughter of the ninth Earl of Wemyss, was granted a new
sixteen-year lease of No. 12. (ref. 60) He also acquired a similar
lease of No. 11 at the same time (ref. 61) and may have
contemplated re-uniting the two houses, but apparently
did not do so, No. 11 being in the occupation of a milliner
for most of the remaining years of the nineteenth century. (ref. 62)
In 1888–9, however, Wells extended the front of No. 12 by
one bay on a strip of land taken from the site of No. 13,
then recently rebuilt as St. Mark's Vicarage. (ref. 63) He died in
the latter year but his widow was allowed by the second
Duke of Westminster to retain No. 12 under a yearly
tenancy after the lease had expired, and she lived there
until her death in 1920. (ref. 64)
Figure 29:
Nos. 11 and 12 North Audley Street, plans in c. 1800 and post-1948. Stippled area shows the original extent of No. 11
Figure 30:
No. 12 North Audley Street, section
In the following year a new lease of No. 12 was granted
to Lord Ivor Churchill, the son of the ninth Duke of
Marlborough, and he was the first of a series of twentieth-century occupants to undertake extensive renovations and
additions. Among alterations carried out for him by Philip
Tilden were the replacement of the main staircase
balustrade with a replica of a standard early-Georgian Sscroll pattern in wrought iron, the formation of a doorway
instead of a wide opening where part of the wall had been
removed between the front room and the octagon room on
the ground floor, (ref. 65) and the insertion in the front room of
door architraves brought from Hamilton Palace.
In 1932 No. 12 was purchased by Samuel Courtauld,
the industrialist and art collector. (ref. 66) His wife having
recently died, Courtauld had given the leasehold interest of
their former home at No. 20 Portman Square to London
University as part of his provisions for founding the
Courtauld Institute of Art. (ref. 67) Substantial alterations were
carried out in that year at No. 12 for Courtauld by
Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie and the decorating firm
of White Allom. The house was raised by a storey, and a
new bedroom with Chinese wallpaper and painting to
match by Rex Whistler (Plate 26a) and a semi-circular
marble bathroom (Plate 53d in vol. XXXIX), designed by the
Marchese Malacrida for White Allom, were added. A
'secret' winding staircase clad externally with sheet copper
connected the first floor with the new bedroom. (ref. 68)
On his death in 1947 Courtauld bequeathed the house to
Lady Aberconway, wife of the second Baron, who had
drawn his attention to its availability when he was looking
for a new home after the death of his wife. (ref. 69) Courtauld had
also acquired the lease of No. 11, which had numbered
among its twentieth-century occupants the fourth Baron
Vivian, the second Earl of Lytton and Lady Ursula
Filmer-Sankey, the daughter of the second Duke of
Westminster. (ref. 70) He left this house also to Lady Aberconway and the two houses were once again in part re-united
in 1948–9. Most of the ground-floor room at the back of
No. 11 (which, as indicated earlier, was originally part of
No. 12) was once again incorporated in the larger house.
The first floor of No. 11 was also added to No. 12, and what
remained of No. 11 was turned into flats. The architects for
the alterations were Easton and Robertson. (ref. 71)
In 1958 dry rot was discovered in the south wall of the
gallery and this wall has been substantially replaced in
cement with new cement mouldings copied from the
original wooden ones on the north wall. (ref. 69)
Lady Aberconway lived at No. 12 until her death in
1974. (ref. 72)
Throughout the vicissitudes of its building history the
best features of the rich early-Georgian interior of No. 12
have been preserved. Almost all of these are on the ground
floor. At the front of the house the plain entrance hall with
a stone floor of black and white squares laid in a lozenge
pattern is flanked by a fine pine-panelled room with
modillion cornice, richly carved dado-rail and wooden
chimneypiece (fig. 30). Some of the features of this room,
including the door architraves and part of the panelling
are, however, known to have been assembled from
elsewhere.
The centre of the house is occupied by the oval staircase
compartment and the octagon room. In the former the
winding stone stairs, which rise only to first-floor level, are
cantilevered out from one side and have shaped undersides. The wrought-iron balustrade is a modern reproduction and the head of the stairs has been altered and a
former opening blocked off; the stone floor to this
compartment is also modern. In the octagon room (Plate
25d, fig. 30) four of the sides have recesses, formerly wider
than at present and probably designed for bookshelves as
in Plate 25d, but in the early nineteenth century one of
these sides had a doorway which communicated with both
the room to the south and the front room. The doorcases in
this room have pediments and pulvinated friezes in a
banded bay-leaf pattern, but two of these, on the west and
south sides, are copies, the latter replacing a fireplace. A
broad plaster frieze containing festoons and medallions
with classical heads runs around the room, and at the top of
the dome, beneath the skylight, is more decorative
plasterwork, including a variant of the key-fret design
much favoured by Edward Shepherd.
The finest room in the house, however, is the gallery at
the rear, where the proportions and detailing convey the
impression of a more spacious room than is actually the
case (Plate 25c, fig. 30: see also Plate 11 in vol. XXXIX). The
centre part is a square with a magnificent coffered dome
and on each side are smaller compartments with groinvaulted ceilings, the ribs of which are decorated with
husks. There is an exuberant profusion of detail throughout, including quarter and three-quarter Ionic columns
at all the angles, while above there is a full entablature with
a pulvinated frieze of banded bay leaves. The window
openings and doorcases are similarly enriched, and at each
end are aedicules containing niches (that on the south wall
being, as stated earlier, a replacement in cement). The
columns and lower decorative features are mainly of wood,
plaster taking over at entablature level. The stone
chimneypiece, which has terms with cherubs' heads at the
sides, is particularly fine but some of the decoration of the
lower part of the terms is now missing. The overmantel is
surmounted by an open pediment and is decorated with
another cherub's head between festoons, but the drops
which formerly ornamented the sides have also been
stripped away. Close examination shows that some of the
plasterwork details are quite coarse, but, as is often the case
with Shepherd's work, the minor defects do not detract
from the splendour of the overall ensemble, and this room,
which has undergone only relatively slight alteration, has
been described as 'perhaps the most beautiful earlyGeorgian room surviving in London'. (ref. 73)
No. 13.
This house, now subdivided, was built in
1887–8 to the designs of (Sir) Arthur Blomfield as a
vicarage for St. Mark's Church. This was the last major
project undertaken by the Reverend Joseph Watson Ayre
during his long incumbency from 1851 to 1898, the
freehold site being presented by the Duke of Westminster
to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty. Blomfield had
already remodelled the interior of the church in 1878, and
for the vicarage he now provided a red-brick Anglo-Dutch
design (readily approved by the Duke) of three wide bays
rising to five storeys through an elaborately curved gable
(Plates 26b, 49e: see also fig. 23f, g in vol. XXXIX). The
builders were Macey and Son. (ref. 74)
By 1920 the vicarage was too large for the needs of the
incumbent, who wished to sell it. In 1929, however,
attempts to dispose of it were abandoned and the building
was turned into flats with a new second doorway to North
Audley Street. The architect for the alterations was (Sir)
Edward Maufe and the builders were F. and H. F. Higgs. (ref. 75)
After the parish of St. Mark's was dissolved in 1974 the
ground and first floors (numbered 13A) were adapted as the
rectory of St. George's, Hanover Square. (ref. 76)
St. Mark's Church
St. Mark's Church (Plates 26b, 27, figs. 31–2: see also
Plate 29b, fig. 11 in vol. XXXIX). Although it was
substantially paid for by the parishioners of St. George's,
Hanover Square, out of a church rate, St. Mark's can be
classed as one of the Commissioners' churches built under
the Church Building Act of 1818. St. George's was one of
twenty-five parishes where the population exceeded
church sittings by more than 20,000, and where urgent
action was therefore required. (ref. 77) In 1819 a committee of the
Vestry was appointed to consider the Act and to enquire
into possible sites for one or more chapels; and this became
the Vestry's church building committee. Its members
included Edward Boodle, Lord Grosvenor's lawyer. (ref. 78)
The committee initially recommended that a district
chapel should be built in the out-ward or less populated
part of the parish, where Lord Grosvenor was to provide a
site free, and a chapel of ease in one of the in-wards. It
estimated that the cost would be £50,000 including the
purchase money for the site of the chapel of ease. (ref. 79) The
Vestry submitted this proposal to the Commissioners with
a request that they would provide a third of the £50,000, to
which the Commissioners promptly agreed. (ref. 80) Within a
short time, however, the committee found that they could
obtain another free site on Crown land with a frontage to
Regent Street, and the Vestry resolved to build three new
chapels at an estimated cost of £60,000. Although the
Commissioners refused to grant any more money, they
readily agreed to vary the conditions attached to their
earlier grant, and St. Peter's, Eaton Square, and the
Hanover Chapel in Regent Street (now demolished) were
erected in addition to St. Mark's in the years 1823–8. (ref. 81)
At first the building committee favoured a site at the
corner of Davies Street and Weighhouse (then Chandler)
Street for their proposed chapel in the Mayfair part of the
Grosvenor estate, but after difficulties had arisen there
they settled for a piece of ground at North Audley Street. (ref. 82)
The plot available there consisted largely of land lying
behind the houses on the east side of the street which had
originally formed part of an extensive garden to No. 15. (ref. 83)
In 1792 Earl Grosvenor had purchased the existing
leasehold interest in this large plot for 1,500 guineas in
order to extend Green Street eastwards, but this improvement had never materialized and thereafter the land had
been used for the pasturing of cattle, the beating of carpets
or as a parade ground for the St. George's Volunteers, and
latterly as the site of temporary workshops belonging to an
upholsterer. (ref. 84) In order to provide a frontage to North
Audley Street the site of one house was included, and right
of way was also to be provided to Balderton (then George)
Street through a passage at the rear at the south-east corner
of the site. The estate surveyor, William Porden, valued
the freehold of the whole plot at £9,556, but the
assessment made by the building committee's independent
surveyor was for only £5,200, and ultimately a price of
£7,000 was agreed as a compromise. (ref. 85) The Commissioners, however, remained to be convinced that a site
which provided such a narrow street frontage was suitable,
but they were persuaded by the Vestry's arguments that
'there will be a Frontage of 34 Feet to the Street, where it is
proposed to build a handsome Porch opening into a
covered Passage communicating with the Chapel; and that
there will also be a covered Passage communicating to the
Chapel from George Street, by which means the Entrance
to the Pews, and to the free Seats can be kept distinct':
furthermore, the distance of the body of the chapel 'from
the Street would prevent any Interruption to the Service
from the Noise of Carriages'. (ref. 86) The provision of separate
access for rich and poor enabled the long narthex or
pronaos in North Audley Street to be used as a social
concourse by 'the fashionable belles who embellish it at the
conclusion of their devotions'. (ref. 87)
The conveyance of the site from Lord Grosvenor to the
Commissioners was made early in 1824 (ref. 88) and at about the
same time, from thirteen designs for the new chapel
submitted to them, the building committee chose two,
those of J. P. Gandy (who in 1828 assumed the name of
Deering) and W. J. Donthorne, the latter in a style described as 'Corinthian of the Temple of Tivoli'. These they
referred, with no stated preference, to the Commissioners'
church building committee, which chose the former. (ref. 89)
(fn. b)
Figure 31:
Fig. 31. St. Mark's Church
a. Plan as built in 1825–8 by J. P. Gandy Deering
b. Plan in 1975, as altered in 1878 by Sir Arthur Blomfield
Building was delayed for over a year by a dispute with
the lessee of a neighbouring house in North Audley Street.
Eventually the foundation stone was laid on 7 September
1825 and the chapel was certified as completed by the
Commissioners' surveyor in June 1828. (ref. 91) The contractor
for all except the stonework was Spicer Crowe, who had
built St. Paul's, Nottingham, and St. Peter's, Belper; the
mason was David Colbeck and the clerk of works Robert
Johnson. The total cost of construction was £13,299, of
which Gandy Deering received £615 as his commission. (ref. 92)
The site cost slightly more than £7,000, as a small
additional plot at the rear of No. 14 North Audley Street
was added during the course of building in order to provide
a room to the north of the narthex. (ref. 93) The Commissioners
gave £5,556 towards the cost of the chapel, the one-third of
£50,000 which they had agreed to grant being divided
equally between St. Mark's, St. Peter's, Eaton Square, and
the Hanover Chapel. (ref. 94)
St. Mark's was designed to seat 1,610 (784 in free
sittings) and was consecrated on 25 April 1828 as a chapel
of ease to St. George's. In 1835 it was assigned a district,
which was designated a parish in 1863 under the New
Parishes Act of 1856. (ref. 95)
What differentiated St. Mark's from so many Commissioners' churches was its tightly enclosed site. Gandy
Deering's design made the most of this limitation by
concentrating upon a single major exterior feature, the
west front to North Audley Street (Plate 26b: see also fig.
11 in vol. XXXIX). Here he placed a deep portico in antis
and, above its entablature, a tall bell turret, square in plan
with splayed corners, set back from the line of frontage. As
an archaeologist of repute and an authority on Attica, he
borrowed the Ionic details of his portico from the
Erechtheum, and in the turret incorporated hints from the
Tower of the Winds. The west front was praised at the
time by Britton and Pugin as 'an architectural gem …
superior to almost every other analogous building in
London'. (ref. 96) It appears today as it was left by Gandy
Deering, with three exceptions: the honeysuckle and
lion-head motifs of the entablature have disappeared, the
iron gates protecting the steps up to the portico were
removed during the war of 1939–45, and at some stage the
pierced and circular louvres in the lights of the bell turret,
originally also of iron, were replaced in another material.
From the portico three entrances with pure Greek
detail, the centre one of commanding height (Plate 27b),
lead into small vestibules and beyond that into Gandy
Deering's square pronaos or narthex. This apartment,
which fills out the awkward space between the street and
the body of the church, enabled Gandy Deering to apply
the tradition of the public pronaos exemplified in Greek
temples which he had studied. By introducing four square
piers with hybrid Greek capitals into its centre, he split the
pronaos into nine compartments, some lit dimly from
above. Beyond this he set a pair of stairs to the galleries and
on the north side he put a small vestry room with raised
toplight.
The geometrical handling of the surviving portico and
pronaos offers clues to the original appearance of the body
of the church, now entirely altered from Gandy Deering's
conception. But according to detailed criticism by E. J.
Carlos in The Gentleman's Magazine, the interior failed to
live up to the high standards of the rest of the church. 'The
porch is too grand for the temple, the spectator expects to
see a Church of unusual splendour at the end of the
spacious vestibule, and he meets with nothing but
disappointment. The body of the Chapel is neither very
spacious, nor is it distinguished by ornament: it shows, like
many modern Churches, a large unbroken area.' There
was, in fact, a very shallow chancel, terminating in an
imitation-marble reredos of Greek Revival type, surmounted by an east window 'tastefully glazed with lilac coloured
glass, within a border of enriched honeysuckles. The panes
are marked with stars, and in the centre is a large calvary
cross in white glass.' Yet the body of the church was still a
preaching box, crammed with high pews facing the pulpit
and reading desk, which were raised up on either side of
the entrance to the chancel. For its architectural qualities it
trusted to a deep entablature and cornice supporting the
flat ceiling, and to deep galleries carried on fluted Doric
columns and ranging round three sides. The side galleries
occupied the approximate lines of the present ones, but the
western gallery projected much further into the body of
the church, as it contained both the organ and seats for the
'charity children'. (ref. 97)
Over the half century after its erection, the fabric of
Gandy Deering's church became increasingly less suited to
the sacramental emphasis in Victorian worship. In the
1860's proper choir seats and a little mural decoration were
introduced and a new east window by Wailes had been
inserted by 1878. (ref. 98) But despite several attempts during the
first half of the long, energetic ministry (1851–98) of the
Reverend Joseph Watson Ayre to make more radical
changes, nothing happened until in 1878 (Sir) Arthur
Blomfield was called in. Blomfield was the natural choice
as architect, having recently designed St. Saviour's,
Oxford Street, nearby, and reconstructed the interior of St.
Mark's sister church, St. Peter's, Eaton Square. St. Mark's
follows the pattern of St. Peter's in that the interior was
totally recast in Blomfield's favourite Romanesque style
without external alteration (Plate 27c). The fabric of St.
Mark's 'was placed in his hands in July 1878 a Pagan
temple', says T. F. Bumpus, 'four months later it left
them, a noble church'. (ref. 99) The contractors for the work were
Dove Brothers and the cost was about £9,600. (ref. 100)
Though Blomfield's reconstruction east of the pronaos
was complete, he was able to re-use much of the original
fabric. He reduced the old nave by one bay, threw this
space into the chancel behind a chancel arch, and
heightened both parts dramatically by the addition of a
clerestory. The chancel has a simple boarded roof, but in
the nave Blomfield exposed the central section of Gandy
Deering's old roof (hitherto concealed by a flat ceiling) by
lifting it bodily and elaborating it with tie-beams, so
creating a remarkably original open-timber construction.
The clerestory lights and round-arched four-and-a-half-bay arcades bearing this roof are in the Romanesque style
of the Auvergne, the walling and arches being of yellow
and light-red polychrome brick, the supporting piers
consisting of clustered columns in Mansfield stone with
scalloped capitals. The piers also carry the galleries, which
were reconstructed with light oak fronts.
More orthodox was Blomfield's treatment of the
chancel. Here he removed Wailes' window, and inserted
three narrow round-headed windows in the east wall, over
a structural five-part reredos with mosaic pictures,
designed by N. H. J. Westlake and executed by Powells.
The small-scale figure glass above was also designed by
Westlake and made by his firm of Lavers and Barraud. (ref. 101)
These craftsmen may have been Ayre's choice, as the north
aisle wall, unaltered in the rebuilding, contains windows
made by the same firm before Blomfield's alterations, in
memory of members of the Ayre family. The upper parts
of the chancel walls are covered in gold mosaic, with some
decorative painting in the spandrels over the lancets, but
the lower sanctuary walls were at first plain. The dwarf
chancel screen with its pretty ironwork (fig. 32) is
Blomfield's, as are the 'Jacobethan' choir stalls and the
mosaic floor (by Burke and Company). Other features in
the chancel are later, notably the marble veneering of the
sanctuary walls, which was carried out as part of a more
extensive scheme of decoration for the church conceived in
about 1899 by J. F. Bentley. Under a first proposal the side
walls of the sanctuary were to be decorated with figurative
scenes, either painted or in mosaic, but in the event a more
modest scheme was executed. The altar and retable are
later features again. The casing and screens round the
organ and organ-pipes probably all date from 1930 when
the instrument was rebuilt, the architectural features being
designed by Edward Maufe. (ref. 102)
Figure 32:
St. Mark's Church, detail of chancel screen
Of Blomfield's fittings in the nave the best are the
Ruskinian pulpit, presented in 1879 and carved by
Thomas Earp in a variety of marbles, and the font, a square
vessel in Devonshire marble inset with four sgraffito panels
of baptism scenes, and located at the end of the south aisle
(Plate 27d). The 'singularly happy' oak eagle lectern,
whose carver according to Bumpus 'spent several hours
watching the eagles in the Zoological Gardens', (ref. 101) was
replaced in 1939 by a bronze figure lectern by T. Meuburg
Crook, which was in turn stolen in 1977. The nave floor
consists of black and white marble slabs installed by
Bentley, who also cut skylights in the roofs of both nave
and chancel in order to lighten the church. (ref. 103)
The south chancel aisle is devoted to the organ console,
but on the corresponding north side a War Memorial
Chapel was formed in 1919, the builders being J. Dorey
and Company of Brentford and the architect perhaps C. J.
Blomfield. (ref. 104) It is panelled and has a five-part reredos, half
painted and half sculpted, against the east wall. The east
part of this chapel projects beyond the original east wall of
the church into a low lean-to extension added along this
end, presumably at the time the chapel was constructed.
Of the stained-glass windows the best are a pair in the
north aisle in memory of two sons of the Reverend J. W.
Ayre (both d. 1872) by Lavers and Barraud. They
incorporate an unusual amount of clear glass for their date
and must have been the models for later windows of similar
type in this and the south aisle, probably all by Powells. In
the north gallery are larger but less satisfactory windows,
one of 1871 signed by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake,
another dated 1872 probably also by them and a third
designed by Henry Holiday in 1883 for the same firm. At
this date Holiday also designed a further window for the
church, probably one of several on the south side blown
out during the war of 1939–45. (ref. 105) Later windows by other
firms are of lesser interest. Of the several small memorials
in the church, the most imposing is the tripartite marble
and mosaic tablet to the Reverend J. W. Ayre (d. 1898) in
the centre of the north aisle. For many years a cartoon of
St. Mark by Burne-Jones was in the pronaos as a memorial
to the Ponsonby family, but this has now been removed to
St. George's, Hanover Square.
St. Mark's ceased to be a parish church in 1974. The
parish was then re-united with St. George's, Hanover
Square; the building was for a few years used as the
American Church in London, but its future is uncertain at
the time of writing.
St. Mark's Schools
St. Mark's Schools are situated on the north side of St.
Mark's Church on a site which is enclosed on its other
three sides by buildings in North Audley Street, North
Row and Balderton Street. In 1829 the managers of the St.
George's United Day Schools in South Street decided to
establish an infants' school, the cost of which was to be
defrayed by subscriptions, and chose the present site
because it was in the centre of an area where a large
proportion of the poorer population of St. George's parish
was concentrated. (ref. 106) In 1830–1 a single-storey schoolroom
for 150 children and a house for the schoolmistress were
built to the designs of William Skeat at a cost of some
£900: the builder was John M. Aitkens. The school was
approached by means of the passageway from George (now
Balderton) Street which also led to St. Mark's Church, and
was originally called the St. George Hanover Square
Parochial Infants School. It was opened in April 1831. (ref. 107)
The name was changed to St. Mark's Schools when an
additional school was built on the north side of the
Grosvenor Chapel in 1841.
In 1835 another classroom was added (ref. 108) and in 1849
more extensive additions and alterations were made by
Francis Morris and Brothers of Mount Street, builders,
under the direction of Robert W. Jearrad, the Vestry's
surveyor. By now the schools consisted of a boys' school
and a girls' school as well as an infants' school, all still
housed in a single-storey building. (ref. 109) Another storey was
built over part of the premises in 1854 and this was
extended in 1859 to the designs, on both occasions, of
Alexander D. Gough. (ref. 110) In 1870 the Marquess (later first
Duke) of Westminster presented the schools with an
additional strip of land on the east side and they were
enlarged in the following year by Matthew Allen and Son
of Finsbury, who were also building the adjacent
Clarendon Flats in Balderton Street. The plans for the
alterations were 'drawn out by Mr. Ayre', the indefatigable
vicar of St. Mark's, and after they had been completed the
schools could accommodate 600 children. (ref. 111)
In 1893 the school buildings were declared unfit by a
government inspector and repairs were hastily put in hand
under the direction of Sir Arthur Blomfield. (ref. 112) The need to
maintain the outworn fabric of the buildings placed a
severe strain on the schools' resources, however, and with a
dwindling attendance (finally down to 110) the schools
were closed on 30 April 1904. (ref. 113) The buildings were used
by the Regent Street Polytechnic (now The Polytechnic of
Central London) until 1968 and further alterations were
made during this period. (ref. 114)
No. 14.
This pleasantly idiosyncratic building with a
strong flavour of the Low Countries (Plate 26b) was
erected in 1887–8 for Marborough Conrath, an upholsterer, who was the leaseholder of the existing house on the
site and who was granted a new lease on condition he spent
not less than £1,500 on rebuilding. In the event he claimed
to have spent £4,500. His architects were Thomas Henry
Watson and Frederic Hale Collins. (ref. 115)
No. 15
No. 15 was rebuilt by the builder John Newson of
Grosvenor Mews, possibly to an elevational design by
Thomas Cundy II, the estate surveyor, in 1854 (ref. 116) (Plate
26b). Newson was at the time in treaty with the Grosvenor
Office for the erection of several buildings including Nos.
13 and 14 Grosvenor Street, where a requirement was that
the elevations should be prepared by the estate surveyor.
No. 15 North Audley Street also appears to bear the
hallmark of Cundy's influence, particularly in the
elaboration of its Italianate stucco dressings.
The original site of No. 15 included the present
stuccoed extension to the north, but Newson was only
granted a short term in this strip, which the Estate
intended to add to No. 16 when the lease of that house
expired in 1887. (ref. 117) Nevertheless it was here that he placed
the entrance and only staircase to the house without,
apparently, completely rebuilding the existing fabric, for
in 1887 the extension (which was then called No. 15A
although that number is now given to the tiny shop wedged
between No. 15 and the large building at Nos. 16–20) was
required to be refronted to harmonize with the main part
of the building by the then estate surveyor, Thomas
Cundy III. (ref. 118) The result can hardly be said to be a
successful integration.
An early occupant of part of No. 15, from at least 1859
until 1861, was the composer Michael Balfe.
The present small-paned 'Regency' shop front was
installed in 1930 to the designs of (Sir) Albert Richardson
as part of a general remodelling of the ground floor for
Messrs. B. T. Batsford, the publishers. The contractors
were Dove Brothers. (ref. 119)
Nos. 16–20 (consec.).
This building, which has a long
return frontage to North Row, was built in 1908–9 to the
designs of Paul Hoffmann. In February 1908 a building
contract for the site was exchanged with Perry Brothers,
builders, of Bow, and John C. Hill, a prominent North
London building speculator who was the owner and
managing director of the London Brick Company. (ref. 120)
Hoffmann was the choice of Perry Brothers and, although
Eustace Balfour, the estate surveyor, was not impressed
with his work elsewhere, the Grosvenor Board did not
press their objections. (ref. 121) The result is a somewhat
undistinguished building of red brick with stone dressings
including two asymmetrically placed projecting Edwardian Baroque stone bays.
Within a short time of entering into the contract Perry
Brothers were in severe financial difficulties and assigned
their interest to Hill, who informed the district surveyor
that he was the builder and owner. (ref. 122) The original
intention was to erect flats above ground-floor shops but
by November 1908 Hill had decided to build a hotel
instead, although the shops were to be retained. (ref. 123) The
hotel, which was originally called the St. Petersburg and
later the Petrograd, survived until shortly before the end of
the war of 1914–18 when it was turned into a Canadian
officers' hospital. (ref. 48)
No. 21
No. 21 forms part of the return frontage to No. 451
Oxford Street, see page 181.