Nos. 4–10 (consec.) Great Piazza
With No. 1 James Street
Sites of Piazza Chambers and Nos. 2–6 (consec.) Mart
Street
Before the erection of Piazza Chambers and
Nos. 2–6 Mart Street in 1933 the north side of
the Piazza between James Street and the Floral
Hall was occupied by the Tavistock Hotel. The
hotel itself incorporated the remnants of four
portico buildings which comprised, from west to
east, one, three, two and two bays each of the
main façade of the Piazza.
The westernmost site (No. 4–5, with No. 1
James Street) was let in 1636 to Henry Sparkes,
gentleman, with two houses upon it; one was a
portico building on the corner of the Piazza, and
the other fronted James Street. (ref. 62) Sparkes's houses
were, apparently, poorly constructed for in 1698
a lease was granted to Thomas Hughs of St.
Margaret's, bricklayer, and Joseph Collins of St.
Martin's, carpenter, for forty-one years, in consideration of their undertaking to 'pull downe
reedifye and New build or otherwise well and
substancially Repaire' both houses. (ref. 36) The two
houses were empty in 1698 (ref. 42) and were probably
only patched up. It was no doubt at this time that
the front was heightened by a parapet that
breached the uniformity of the portico houses
(Plate 26). When, in 1761, a new lease of the
corner house was granted to James Pitt, perukemaker, the list of repairs which he was required
to perform included taking down the north and
south parapet walls as far as the leads (in order to
lighten the walls) and fixing wooden 'pallisadoes'
in their place; he also had to make good the brickwork and stucco the front and side of the house
'all over'. (ref. 26) The alterations can be seen in Plate
29b.
In 1792 both the corner house, occupied by
Pitt, and the house in James Street, occupied by
Peter Burn, were again in a 'ruinous' condition.
A building lease was offered to Pitt for his own
site, but he became insolvent and was unable to
accept the Duke of Bedford's proposals. The next
two adjoining houses in James Street also needed
rebuilding, and a lease of all four was therefore
offered to a speculator, George Cloake of
Turnham Green, surveyor. Cloake accepted the
Duke's proposals in February 1796 and shortly
afterwards transferred his option for a lease of
Pitt's and Burn's sites to Edward Marter, gentleman, for £290. Marter signed a contract to build
one large house there and employed [George]
Jerningham as his surveyor, although the elevations, at least, appear to have been supplied by the
Duke's own surveyor, Henry Holland.
The original proposals offered to Pitt in 1792
required the front of the portico walk to be of
Portland stone, and the building to be protected
from fire risk by 'Hartley's Plates' or 'Lord
Stanhope's Composition'. The agreement signed
by Cloake in 1796 contained the additional
stipulations that he was to build the corner house
'so as to maintain the Piazza in its original
Character as to Design, the Front to the Top of
the Fascia over the arches towards James Street
and Covent Garden Market to be built with Portland Stone the rest Stuccod … the Piazza [or
portico walk] to be arched over with Plaister or
Ribs'. According to Marter he was, in turn,
required to ensure that 'not only the Front to the
top of the Facia over the Arches might be built
with Portland Stone … but that the Pilasters,
Window Dressings, Piers in the Arches, Parapet
and Balustrade might be done in the same way and
not in Stucco', because the Duke intended 'to
rebuild and continue the whole of the Piazza in
the like manner'. (ref. 63) Marter evidently complied
with these demands for in 1800 he was granted a
lease for seventy-three years, ten years more than
the term originally agreed. (ref. 64)
The single house erected by Marter on the site
of the two former houses was thereafter known
as No. 1 James Street. In 1856 it was let to
R. J. Hawkes who connected the upper floors
with the adjoining Tavistock Hotel. The ground
floor remained in use, as it had probably been
designed, for a shop. (ref. 65)
The next house eastwards (No. 6–7) was
erected under a lease granted to John Ward,
citizen and girdler of London, from Michaelmas
1635. (ref. 54) It was the widest house of this group but
the site was restricted at the rear by the back
premises belonging to the houses in James Street.
The house was occupied by one of the sons of the
first Duke of Bedford during the latter part of the
seventeenth century but by 1720 had been
divided, one part being converted into a shop
with separate lodgings. (ref. 66) The house continued to
be occupied as two separate dwellings, part being
occupied in 1732–3 as a coffee house kept by one
Callaghan, until about 1786. (ref. 67) In 1801 Thomas
Harrison became the tenant and established the
Tavistock Hotel. (ref. 68)
The site adjoining the last (No. 8) was granted
to Thomas Pullen, bricklayer, in 1636. (ref. 69) The
house built by Pullen was also occupied by a son
of the first Duke of Bedford (ref. 70) and later divided
into two separate tenements.
In 1742 the two parts were apparently reunited
when Richard Haddock, the proprietor of the
Turk's Head Bagnio at Charing Cross, became
the tenant. Haddock established another bagnio
in the portico house which was granted to him on
lease in 1743. Haddock's Bagnio was managed
after his death in 1748 by his widow and then by
his widow's executrix, Sophia Lenoy, from 1751
to 1762. (ref. 71) Sophia Lenoy also had a licence for a
coffee house, which was presumably situated in
another part of the house. (ref. 72) The bagnio continued under the ownership of Daniel Haveland
in 1763–6, Barney Thornton in 1767–90 and
Thornton's widow in 1791–8. (ref. 42) It probably
came to an end in 1798 when 'Mother' Thornton, 'Mistress of Haddock's Bagnio', died. (ref. 73) In
1802 the house was taken over by Henry Robins,
the auctioneer, who already occupied the adjoining house eastwards. (ref. 42)
The latter (No. 9–10) was originally built
under a lease granted to William Outing, bricklayer, from Michaelmas 1635. (ref. 54) It ceased to be
occupied entirely as a private residence in 1731
when Christopher Cock, auctioneer, became the
tenant. (ref. 42) Behind the house Cock erected an
auction room, (ref. 74) which remained in use for over a
hundred years, Cock being succeeded by Abraham
Langford and then, in 1790, by Henry Robins. (ref. 42)
In 1802 Robins took over the adjoining house
westwards, as mentioned above, and the two
houses continued in the ownership of the Robins
family until 1859. In that year the trustees and
executor of George Henry Robins assigned the
lease of both houses to the proprietors of the
Tavistock Hotel, which had occupied part of
the premises since some time before 1841. (ref. 75)
At Thomas Harrison's death in 1841 the
Tavistock Hotel, which then occupied No. 6–7
in the Piazza and the greater part of Nos. 8 and
9–10, passed into the possession of Robert James
Hawkes of Long Acre, ironmonger, Frederick B.
and Stephen Harrison and Charles B. Bingley.
In 1856 Hawkes obtained a lease of No. 1 James
Street and in 1860 Bingley, on behalf of himself
and his partners, signed an agreement for a new
lease of all the hotel premises. The partners undertook to demolish Robins's auction rooms and other
buildings at the rear of the portico buildings and to
build additional hotel accommodation on the site.
A rear building in Hart Street used by the Opera
House as a property store was to be rebuilt by
Frederick Gye, the lessee of the theatre, and
excluded from the new lease of the Tavistock.
A detailed specification was prepared whereby
the lessees were required to 'cover all the external
face of the front and rear walls … with the best
Portland cement, repairing and making good all
defects in the existing front walls and Piazza.
Ornament the south front and portion of the west
front wall with Corinthian Entablature and
pilasters surmounted by an Attic storey, and
continue the cornice &c the whole length of the
west front'. (ref. 76) Relating to the specification are two
drawings for the proposed elevations, signed by
Charles Sewell, architect, (ref. 77) although William
Munt was named as the proprietors' architect and
advertised for tenders in the early part of 1860. (ref. 78)
The new works were to be completed by 1868
and a new lease, for sixty years, was granted to the
proprietors of the hotel on 24 March of that year. (ref. 79)
A photograph taken in 1921 shows that the
work was executed in full accordance with the
specification and Sewell's drawings (Plate 45a).
Above the restored arcade extended a stone balcony, supported by cast-iron scroll-trusses and
furnished with a cast-iron railing of simple
design. The Corinthian pilasters of the upper
face had plain shafts and were raised on pedestals.
The windows of the three storeys were appropriately dressed, those of the first floor with
architraves, friezes and cornices, those of the
second floor with eared and shouldered architraves, and those of the attic storey with eared
architraves.
The Tavistock was one of several 'quasi
private' hotels in the neighbourhood which
flourished, judging by their expansion, during
the middle of the nineteenth century. By 1900,
however, it had fallen on hard times and 'public
taste' was inclining towards 'the large modern
Hotels where the cost of living is not very much
higher and the accommodation is infinitely
superior'. The Bedford Office resolutely refused
to allow the hotel to be converted to other purposes, although pressed to do so, and the Tavistock
continued to exist until the main lease of its
premises expired in 1928. (ref. 80)
After its demolition Mart Street was laid out
on the eastern part of the site and the building
called Piazza Chambers erected between the new
street and James Street.