West Side
Nos. 22 and 23.
The present buildings here were erected
as part of the extensive rebuilding of the block bounded by
Oxford Street, North Audley Street, North Row and Park
Street during the 1960's. For these and the previous
buildings on the site see page 182.
Nos. 24–29 (consec.) North Audley Street and No. 1 Green Street
Nos. 24–29 (consec.) North Audley Street and No. 1
Green Street were rebuilt in 1891–3 to a uniform design
by Thomas and F. T. Verity (Plate 26c). When the leases
of the existing buildings on the site expired in 1890 the
Grosvenor Board determined that rebuilding should take
place and chose Thomas Verity as the architect. (ref. 124) He had
recently designed a similar-sized block at Nos. 34–42
(consec.) South Audley Street (see page 324), and despite
some difficulties there between himself and the lessees, had
evidently impressed sufficiently to be given the job in
North Audley Street. When he died in 1891 his son F. T.
Verity was allowed to continue the work. (ref. 125) The result is a
very similar design to the South Audley Street buildings
with three main floors and an attic storey above ground-floor shops in the red-brick and terracotta Mount Street
idiom favoured by the first Duke of Westminster. The
terracotta detailing is varied only slightly between the two
designs, as is the treatment of the attic storey where
elaborate gables, dormer windows and projecting party
walls under tall chimney-stacks provide a considerably
varied skyline.
The contract for building Nos. 25–29 (incorporating
No. 1 Green Street) was given to Matthews Brothers and
Company of Egerton Gardens, Kensington, who offered a
rent of £260 per annum for a ninety-year term. (ref. 126)
Matthews had recently built houses in Egerton Gardens,
and at the same time as building in North Audley Street
they undertook the erection of Nos. 2–11 (consec.) Green
Street and Nos. 31–33 (consec.) North Row. During its
operations on the Grosvenor estate the firm was known as
Matthews, Rogers and Company, Andrew Rogers being a
partner. (ref. 127)
At No. 24 (the Marlborough Head) the builders were
Kirk and Randall of Woolwich, the contract having been
made with Frederick Dixon, the resident publican, who
accepted a new eighty-year lease at £80 per annum. (ref. 128) The
reticence of the original treatment of the exterior of the
public house (now unfortunately marred) was probably the
result of Thomas Verity's experience in South Audley
Street where he had been required to amend the elevation
of the Audley Hotel because the Duke thought it 'too ginpalace-y' and lacking in 'solidity on the ground floor'. The
interior of the Marlborough Head was altered by Bird and
Walters in 1895, (ref. 129) but nothing of this period survives.
Nos. 30–42 (consec.) North Audley Street and No.
62 Green Street.
Although having the appearance of one
composition, the block between Green Street and Lees
Place was built in three stages, and two architects and two
building firms were involved.
The building at the corner with Green Street was the
first to be erected. In 1894 rebuilding terms were sent to
Messrs. Whippy, Steggall and Flemming (or Whippy,
Steggall and Company), a firm of saddlers which had been
in business on an adjoining site to the south since the
1790's when Benjamin Whipp(e)y, saddler, was the
occupant. (ref. 130) Eustace Balfour, the estate surveyor, recommended that Ernest George should be the architect 'unless
some other name should appear preferable', but the firm
nominated Henry S. Legg, the architect to Christ's
Hospital, and the Estate Board agreed. Legg's elevation
was approved by the Duke of Westminster in 1896 and
building took place in 1896–7 with Bywaters as the
contractors. (ref. 131) Legg designed a five-storey building in red
brick with Portland-stone dressings including mullionedand-transomed windows. The ground-floor business
premises were numbered 30 North Audley Street, while
the flats on the upper floors had a separate entrance at No.
62 Green Street. (ref. 132) Whippy, Steggall and Company
continued to occupy the premises until the war of 1939–45
when the building was damaged by bombing. (ref. 133) Subsequently both the ground and top storeys have been
considerably altered.
Nos. 31–38, consisting of four shops with flats above,
were built in 1898–9, also by Bywaters to Legg's design
(simplified and scaled-down from that of No. 30). The
buildings were limited to a height of forty-five feet to the
eaves at the rear in order to preserve the amenities of the
garden to No. 61 Green Street, which was occupied by the
Duke of Abercorn. (ref. 134)
The leases of the remaining sites up to the corner of Lees
Place did not expire until 1908 and attempts to buy them in
failed. It was thus ten years before the building called
North Audley House could be erected to complete the
rebuilding of the block. The builder was John Garlick and
the architect R. G. Hammond, whose elevation 'corresponds with the rest of the block' and is, in fact, almost a
carbon copy of the design of No. 30, varied to fit a slightly
bigger frontage. (ref. 135)
No. 43
No. 43 was formerly part of No. 22 Grosvenor Square,
see page 141.