Survey Data
Reg No
50920226
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
House
In Use As
Hotel
Date
1800 - 1840
Coordinates
315724, 233067
Date Recorded
11/09/2015
Date Updated
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Description
Terraced three-bay four-storey over basement former townhouse, built c. 1820, with integral carriage-arch to north-end, and full-height bowed extension to rear. Now in use as hotel. Pitched roof hidden behind brick parapet with granite coping, rebuilt shouldered brick chimneystacks with replacement clay pots, parapet gutters uPVC downpipe breaking through to south-end, and mansard roof to extension. Red brick walls laid in Flemish bond, with rendered walls to basement, having granite plinth course. Cement rendered walls to north-bay of rear elevation. Square-headed window openings with brick voussoirs, granite sills and raised rendered reveals. Replacement sliding timber sashes with horns, largely six-over-six pane, nine-over-six to first floor, three-over-three to third floor. Generally with secondary glazing inserted to interior. Diminutive recent timber casements to northern-bay of rear elevation. Round-headed door opening with brick voussoirs, rendered reveals, engaged Ionic columns supporting festooned frieze and cornice, cobwebbed fanlight with fluted surround and twelve-panelled timber door. Round-headed carriage-arch with brick voussoirs and dressed granite reveals to north-end, shared with No. 28 (50920225) and leading to Camden Place. Replacement granite platform and bullnosed granite steps flanked by cast-iron railings with decorative corner posts on masonry plinth, continuing to south to enclose basement area. Street-fronted on west side of Harcourt Street with recent brick and stone boundary wall and mews building to rear, fronting onto Camden Place.
Appraisal
Built as a unified terrace comprising Nos. 24-31 (50920221-8), the group is characterised by the unusually narrow three-bays of the principal facades, and forms part of a relatively intact street of late-Georgian and early-Victorian townhouses. Though altered for use as a hotel, the building positively contributes to the wider streetscape, which retains uniform rooflines, vertical massing and restrained detailing. Harcourt Street was opened 1777 by John Hatch, barrister and Seneschal of the Manor of St. Sepulchre. Development was sporadic until the late 1790s when Messrs Hatch, Wade and Whitten obtained approval from the Wide Street Commissioners for the further development of the street.