Lees Place, Shepherd Close and Shepherd's Place
Lees Mews (now Place) was named after Robert Lee or
Lees, who was the first proprietor of the Two Chairmen
tavern which stood at the north corner with North Audley
Street and who also had premises in the mews itself. (ref. 116)
Besides the usual coach-houses and stables a number of
small houses were built in the mews, some of them
grouped around three narrow courts or passages opening
out of its north side. One of these, on the site now occupied
by the flats called Lees Court, was called Shepherd's Place
after John Shepherd, plasterer, who was responsible for
much of the building that took place there in the 1730's and
early 1740's. (ref. 117) Confusingly, Shepherd's Place is now the
name given to the passage directly opposite between Lees
Place and Upper Brook Street which was originally called
Shepherd's Court, also after John Shepherd, the builder of
several small houses along it. (ref. 118)
No. 1 Lees Place
No. 1 Lees Place was built in 1908 to designs by
Wimperis and Best as stabling for No. 1 Upper Brook
Street, then being rebuilt as a speculation by John Garlick.
For the elevation towards the mews Wimperis proposed
'something better than usual as Mr. Garlick's flats in
North Audley Street [at No. 42] will look out upon it'. (ref. 119)
The resulting three-storey façade in red brick with stone or
cement dressings is a good deal more elaborate than the
average stable-block elevation. Pilasters on each side of the
stable doors rise to second-floor level and carry a steeply
raking open-based pediment which frames a large lunette
window.
No. 2 Lees Place
No. 2 Lees Place, which has a red-brick neo-Georgian
upper storey above a ground-floor garage and entrance, is a
conversion or rebuilding of the coach-house and stables
belonging to No. 2 Upper Brook Street, and probably
dates from c. 1923 when a new long-term lease of the
separate mews premises was granted. (ref. 120)
No. 3 Lees Place
No. 3 Lees Place was built as a coach-house and stables
with a coachman's quarters above in 1888–9 for Samuel
Lewis of No. 23 Grosvenor Square to the designs of J. T.
Wimperis and W. H. Arber (ref. 121) (Plate 52c, 52e: see also Plate
50c in vol. XXXIX). In 1932 the premises were converted
into a dwelling house for the first Viscount Furness by H.
Douglas Kidd and the exterior was considerably altered (ref. 122)
(Plate 50d in vol. XXXIX).
No. 4 Lees Place
No. 4 Lees Place is a spacious mews house of 1930 by
Frederick Etchells for the Hon. Evelyn Fitz-Gerald. The
crisp neo-Georgian elevation is of three main storeys plus
basement and attic, five bays wide with the three middle
bays advanced slightly and crowned by a pediment (Plate
52c). The entrance, also pedimented, is approached by a
broad flight of steps with curving iron rails to each side.
The Architectural Review in an article aimed at devotees of
the modern movement remarked, 'No shame need be
attached to the pediments'. The main rooms were arranged
around an internal courtyard to make maximum use of
available light in this northward-facing plot. The builders
were E. D. Winn and Company. (ref. 123)
No. 5 Lees Place (Mayfair Cottage)
No. 5 Lees Place (Mayfair Cottage) is a two-storey
house of '1920's rural' appearance with bay windows and
leaded panes quite alien to the general building traditions
of the Mayfair area. A plaque on the front is inscribed
'1723 Mayfair Cottage Restored 1970', but even if there
are vestiges of the stabling erected here for No. 5 Upper
Brook Street under a building lease granted to David
Audsley, plasterer, in 1730 (ref. 124) (not 1723), very little of the
original structure can remain. In 1912 the front was
required to be rebuilt under a dangerous structures notice
and the opportunity was taken to convert part of the
premises into a garage. (ref. 125) In 1930 alterations were made to
the façade and the garage eliminated. (ref. 126) Further alterations
and conversions were made in 1934 and 1935. (ref. 127) The
private courtyard in front was originally a stable yard of
double-plot width shared with the coach-house and stables
at No. 4 and had a joint entrance to the mews, David
Audsley, who was also the building lessee of No. 4 Upper
Brook Street, (ref. 128) no doubt contriving this unusual arrangement.
No. 8 Lees Place
No. 8 Lees Place was built in 1934 as a house
incorporating a self-contained maisonette on the
Shepherd's Place frontage to the designs of Humphry
Deane and Darcy Braddell. The building has since been
converted into flats. Although unified by similar
materials—red brick, Portland stone and 'Lombardic' roof
tiles—there is a difference in the treatment of the house
from the maisonette which is clearly expressed in the
elevations, the house being more conventionally neoGeorgian, while the maisonette is more modern in idiom
(Plate 52b). The contractor was the building firm of Harry
Neal and the carving of the keystones of the first-floor
windows was by W. Aumonier and Sons. (ref. 129)
Nos. 10–12 (consec.) Lees Place and 5–15 (odd) Shepherd's Place
Nos. 10–12 (consec.) Lees Place and 5–15 (odd)
Shepherd's Place were built in 1890–1 by the Artizans',
Labourers' and General Dwellings Company as workingclass flats with ground-floor shops to the designs of F. T.
Pilkington. (ref. 130) The narrowness of Shepherd's Place
required that this should be a low building with a
maximum height of four storeys, but in other respects it is
generally similar to the company's earlier block at Nos. 20
and 22 Lees Place opposite (Plate 52a).
No. 14 Lees Place
No. 14 Lees Place, a neat, red-brick, neo-Georgian
mews house of two main storeys and a tall attic, is the result
of the virtually complete rebuilding in 1930 of the earlier
stable building on the site. The architect was Frederick
Etchells. (ref. 131)
Nos. 20 and 22 Lees Place
Nos. 20 and 22 Lees Place, originally called
Shepherd's Place Buildings, are two blocks of artisans'
dwellings separated by a building of totally different
character at No. 21. No. 22 is now known as Lees Court
(Plate 52a). The two plots were made available to the
Artizans', Labourers' and General Dwellings Company in
1887 but the lease of the intervening site did not expire
until 1896, and although the company anticipated
acquiring this plot no promise was made to it. (ref. 132) F. T.
Pilkington designed the dwellings which are high (five
storeys) for their mews location, and although he strove for
architectural effect by an extensive use of dressings
(including pedimented and shaped window surrounds to
the topmost windows), the use of a maroon colour for these
dressings (perhaps executed in Lascelles' dyed concrete)
against the background of red brick and tile produces a
sombre, institutional effect, marginally relieved now by the
whitewashing of the ground floor. The appearance of these
blocks has not been enhanced by the loss of the pediments
and finials from the gables and the demolition of the upper
parts of the flank walls and their rows of chimney-pots.
No. 21 Lees Place
No. 21 Lees Place, which has a lively red-brick
elevation of three main storeys crowned by two Dutch
gables, was built as stabling in 1897–8. During the
building of the working-class dwellings on each side the
residents of Green Street had complained about the loss of
light and air to their houses and when the lease of this
intermediate plot expired in 1896 the Duke of Westminster
decided not to allow it to be used for more artisans'
dwellings. Instead the site was offered to William Cubitt
and Company, who were about to rebuild Nos. 55–59
(consec.) Green Street at the rear. Their architect was
H. O. Cresswell, who also designed the houses in Green
Street. (ref. 133)
No. 23 Lees Place
No. 23 Lees Place was formerly a coach-house
belonging to Hampden House, No. 61 Green Street, and
was probably built shortly after 1822 when the second
Viscount Hampden acquired a lease of the site. (ref. 134) Some
alterations were made in 1869, (ref. 81) probably by J. Macvicar
Anderson, and further alterations have since been made to
provide a separate dwelling.
Nos. 1–3 (consec.) Shepherd Close
Nos. 1–3 (consec.) Shepherd Close were built in
1933–5 to the designs of W. E. Masters; the builders were
Pitchers of Hornsey. (ref. 135) This group of neo-Georgian
houses, each of two main storeys with a tall attic, was
erected on part of the extensive curtilage which formerly
belonged to No. 6 Upper Brook Street. A new private
courtyard was laid out and is entered from Lees Place to
the east of No. 8. The main elevations of the houses face
this courtyard, called Shepherd Close, and the rear
elevations abut on the east side of Shepherd's Place.
Nos. 1 and 3 Shepherd's Place
Nos. 1 and 3 Shepherd's Place are spacious neoGeorgian houses, each of five bays and three storeys with
an attic above a generous basement, which were built in
1937–8 to the designs of Wimperis, Simpson and Guthrie
as part of a rebuilding scheme which included the adjacent
Nos. 9, 10 and 10A Upper Brook Street; the builders were
Gee, Walker and Slater (ref. 136) (Plate 52a).