Green Street Area: North Row

North Row

In the eighteenth century the north side of North Row was almost entirely taken up with the stables and other appendages of buildings in Oxford Street and Hereford Street. On the south side a number of small houses were built, and there were also several yards or passages with workshops, stables or small dwellings grouped around them: (fn. 1) all have now been demolished. Most of North Row is now lined with commercial buildings of relatively recent date.

Nos. 12 and 14

Nos. 12 and 14 were built as stables and coach-houses in 1898 by Bywaters to the designs of Sidney R. J. Smith (fn. 2) (Plate 48b, 48d). No. 12 was for Lord Ribblesdale, who had chosen the same builder and architect for the erection of his new mansion at No. 32 Green Street, while No. 14 was a speculative range of stabling. The buildings consist of two storeys with additional rooms in the roof lit by dormers which are set well back, Smith's restrained elevations here being in red brick with stone dressings including a dentilled cornice. In later years the upper storey of No. 14 has been extended to the east, while the ground floor of No. 12 has been converted into a wine bar.

North Row Dwellings

North Row Dwellings were erected in 1887–9 by the St. George's Workmen's Model Dwellings Association to the designs of Robert Henry Burden; the builders were Higgs and Hill. (fn. 3) Burden had extensive experience with large buildings of this nature, having designed many workhouses and at least one block of artisans' dwellings, Grosvenor Buildings in Grosvenor Mews (now Bourdon Street). He gave to the main façade of North Row Dwellings the character of a single composition of some complexity (Plate 48d) which contrasts strongly with the plainness of his earlier building in Bourdon Street. This treatment may have been prescribed because the building was overlooked by the backs of the expensive houses in Hereford Gardens, the residents of which complained to the Duke of Westminster about the proposed dwellings. (fn. 4) As a result the overall height of the building was reduced, but with a semi-basement and a tall attic storey Burden was still able to provide five floors.

Nos. 31–33 (consec.)

Nos. 31–33 (consec.), a group of three narrow, gabled, red-brick buildings, now with ground-floor shops or showrooms, were erected in 1892–3 as stables with dwellings above by Matthews, Rogers and Company to the designs of the firm's architect, M. C. Hulbert. (fn. 5)

No. 34

No. 34 was built in 1891–2 to the designs of Eustace Balfour and Thackeray Turner as a workshop for R. W. Shipway, one of the proprietors of Hammond and Company of Oxford Street, a firm of leather-breechesmakers. (fn. 6) The building is faced with red brick (now painted over) and has brick headers to the windows with moulded undersides (Plate 26c). The date 1891 in the shaped gable is original but the small quatrefoils bearing the initials R and S are later additions. The white paint which now covers the surface unfortunately obscures an attempt to invest a small industrial building with Arts and Crafts detailing, but the building is still of some interest as one of the few survivors of a type which was common in this area of the estate during the nineteenth century. The builders were Killby and Gayford. (fn. 7)

No. 35

No. 35 see page 110.

Other buildings on the north side of North Row with their principal elevations to Oxford Street are described in Chapter IX.