LXVIII—TAVISTOCK SQUARE
The eastern side of the square, the work of James Burton, was the
earliest part erected and was completed soon after 1806 (see p. 93). It has
now been entirely rebuilt but some records were made before it was destroyed.
The design was severely simple but most effective, and it is important because
it set the key to the character of the development that followed in the immediate neighbourhood. From the general view (Plate 46) it will be seen that the
houses were four storeys in height, over a basement. Burton's scheme was
the familiar one of combining the two centre storeys, which were of brick, in
one order, supported on the ground floor of rusticated stucco as a base, and
separated from the third floor or attic, also brick, by a bold continuous stucco
entablature. The horizontal division was further emphasized by an unbroken
balcony with iron balustrade at first-floor level. The modelling of this very
long front, which measured some 420 feet and comprised 18 houses, was
effected with extreme economy but was none the less successful. The central
block of four houses and the end blocks of three projected forward slightly,
and on each of these latter wings an additional projection was schemed to set
up six Ionic pilasters in the main order to the first and second floors., (fn. *) These
pilasters give emphasis to the ends of the whole block and give it completeness
without unduly altering its appearance as a row of houses. The pilasters
enclose the central five of the nine windows on each floor of the wings, and the
doorways of the three houses are all grouped symmetrically below this feature.
Above the pilasters, in the attic storey, are small terminal pilasters, diminishing towards their bases (Plate 46). The entrance doorways had wide double
doors within an architectural frame with reeded columns, set below a segmental arch that enclosed cobweb fanlights. The wrought-iron railings were
of spear-head shape with cast vases to the standards and the lamp supports
were of elaborate scroll-work (Plate 49).
The opposite (west) side of Tavistock Square was built by Thomas
Cubitt in 1825–6 (ref. 92) and remains a very complete example of his work (see
photograph, Plate 50, and measured drawing, Plate 51). Though based on
Burton's design on the east side and keeping his general proportions, it
developed his theme, giving it more variety and, as Mr. Summerson remarks,
showing a great advance in finish and workmanship. (ref. 93) The number of houses
is seventeen, the five centre ones being crowned with a balustraded parapet
and three of them set forward to form tetrastyle porticos, the middle one
with four three-quarter Ionic columns and those at the side with Ionic
pilasters. The latter feature is twice repeated at each end of the block, with
one house intervening between those with pilasters. The attic has plain
pilaster strips where columns or pilasters occur below, and there is a simple
moulded parapet each side of the central balustrade. The ground floor of
the houses treated with columns or pilasters has rusticated stucco and that
of the others is plainly rendered. The door openings are arched with
ornamental fanlights over the doors.
Cubitt was very successful with his treatment of the ends of his
palatial blocks of houses. The south side of Endsleigh Place (Plates 55 and 56)
is composed entirely of the north returns of the west side of Tavistock Square
and the east side of Gordon Square. Each block has angle pilasters, Ionic
and Corinthian respectively, and a pair of pilasters frame the centre windows,
carrying up the lines of the entrance porches below. On each side of these,
on the three upper floors, are blank window recesses with stucco framework.
The garden wall between is pleasantly treated with a central pedimental
gateway flanked by a balustraded wall.
The north side of Endsleigh Place is described in Section LXXI
(p. 103). The north side of Tavistock Square has been re-built.
Inhabitants
|
| No. 30. | 1850–1851, Sir Richard Madox Bromley (1815–1865), civil servant. From the
Admiralty he was made Secretary to the commission for auditing public accounts (1854)
and was Accountant-General of the Navy during the Russian War. He was made
K.C.B. in 1858 and was Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital. |
| No. 34. | 1890–1895, Rev. George Rawlinson (1812–1902), Canon of Canterbury. He took an
active part in shaping the Oxford University Act of 1854. He was the author of
important works on ancient history, chiefly concerning the Eastern empires and his
History of Herodotus was a comprehensive account of the historian and his times. |
| No. 36. | 1871–1896, Sir John Simon (1818–1897), sergeant-at-law. Barrister, Middle Temple
1842. Liberal M.P. for Dewsbury, 1868–1888. Was an úntiring advocate of Jewish
interests and a founder of the Anglo-Jewish Association. |
| No. 37. | 1848–1890, William Smith, possibly the lexicographer, knighted in 1892, who lived
from 1813 to 1893. |
| No. 39. | 1832–1846, Sir Thomas Joshua Platt (1790?–1862), barrister, Inner Temple, 1816;
baron of the exchequer, 1845–1856. |