| Summary : Nos. 33-40 Fitzroy Square, London, comprise a symmetrical terrace of eight houses built circa 1792-8 by Robert and James Adam. The façades to Nos. 36, 37 and 38 were restored after they were damaged during the Second World War. In circa 1980, Nos. 34-39 were converted for office use and in 1998 the end houses were in use as the London Foot Hospital. In 2010, No. 33 is a venue available to hire for events or as a location for films, television and photography.Built from Portland stone with a rusticated ground floor, there are three bays in the centre and at each end which project. Each house is of four storeys with a basement and has three windows. Nos. 33 and 40 have five window returns to Conway Street and Fitzroy Street respectively. There are round-arched ground floor openings and sash windows in shallow, plain recesses. The windows to the upper floors are square-headed, while those to the first floor have a continuous cast-iron balcony. There is a plain second floor sill band and a main cornice with an enriched frieze at third floor level. Above the attic storey is a cornice and a blocking course. The central projecting three bays have two recessed columns through the first and second floors and there is a Diocletian window above. Each bay to either side has pilasters rising from the first to the third floor and the attic storey has five circular windows. The first floor centre bays of the end pavilions each have two recessed Ionic columns and either side are shallow, rectangular niches with roundels of Classical figures above. There is a main cornice at third floor level with a moulded, enriched panel and a central Diocletian window to the attic storey. |
More information : Nos. 33-40 Fitzroy Square, London, comprise a symmetrical terrace of eight houses built circa 1792-8 by Robert and James Adam. At the time of listing (1954) they were in use as a hospital. The façades to Nos. 36, 37 and 38 were restored in facsimile following war damage. Built from Portland stone with a rusticated ground floor, there are three bays in the centre and at each end which project.
Each house is of four storeys with a basement and has three windows. Nos. 33 and 40 have five window returns (mostly blind) to Conway Street and Fitzroy Street respectively. There are round-arched ground floor openings linked by impost bands and doorways with pilaster-jambs carrying cornice heads, fanlights and panelled doors. The windows are sashes in shallow, plain recesses. The upper floors have square-headed, recessed sash windows while those to the first floor have a continuous cast-iron balcony. There is a plain second floor sill band and a main cornice with an enriched frieze at third floor level. Above the attic storey is a cornice and a blocking course.
The central projecting three bays have two recessed columns in antis through the first and second floor and above there is a Diocletian window. Each bay to either side has pilasters rising from the first to the third floor, supporting the main cornice. The attic storey has five oculi, with the outer two enriched with swags.
The first floor centre bays of the end pavilions each have two recessed Ionic columns in antis supporting a recessed architrave and enriched frieze. To either side are shallow, rectangular niches with roundels of Classical figures above. There is a main cornice at third floor level with a moulded, enriched panel and a central Diocletian window to the attic storey. (1)
According to Pevsner and Cherry, the end houses were occupied (1998) by the London Foot Hospital and those in between had been refurbished as offices in circa 1980 by the Judd Group Practice. (2)
According to this website, No. 33 is now (2010) a venue available to hire for events or as a location for films, television and photography. (3)
In 1913, No. 33 was in use as the London office of the National Industrial and Professional Women's Suffrage Society. They also had an office in Manchester at this time. The society had formed in 1905 by a group of women who had resigned from the North of England Society for Women's Suffrage as well as Esther Roper, Eva Gore-Booth and Christabel Pankhurst. They were said to be '"a society composed of women workers of all grades, and of others interested in the industrial aspect of the Suffrage question"'. They believed that the franchise was they key to achieving industrial and economic rights and were mainly involved in the struggle against protective legislation which would have deprived barmaids and pit brow women of their livelihood. (4)
|