Vincent House, No. 49 Queen Street

IV.—VINCENT HOUSE, No. 49 QUEEN STREET (Demolished)

Vincent House, which has not long been rebuilt, was a plain late Georgian building standing on the east side of Queen Street. The brick front of three storeys, with four windows on the first floor and three on the second, had pilaster projections at each angle, and above the parapet rose a slate Mansard roof with two dormer windows lighting the rooms on the third floor. The staircase showed some curious cast-iron balusters, and on the ground floor was a fireplace with an elaborate cast-iron interior, having spiral columns ornamented with the vine, and a hob grate with reeded pilasters wreathed with floral ornament. Both were interesting examples of a period when design in cast-iron work retained some good qualities.

The most remarkable feature of the house, however, occurred on the first floor, where one of the rooms was completely panelled with late 16th-century panels, and had a good plaster ceiling of later date. Two panels, with twin arches and drop, which had at one time formed part of an overmantel, remained over a late fireplace. The panelling, which reached from floor to ceiling and possessed an excellent dentil cornice, had almost the appearance of being in situ, but it is more likely that the room had been arranged, if not built, to receive it, about the end of the 18th century. The ceiling was probably designed at the same time to complete the effect, and if our supposition is correct, it forms a curiously early example of the preservation and adaptation of old work to a new building. We have no information as to the original source of the panelling.

This property bore an annual charge of £10, under the will of John Allen (1666), to be divided among twenty poor persons in Hammersmith on Christmas Day. Faulkner (fn. 1) mentions that this sum had been paid by Thomas Wetherell and Richard Elwell, "the successive occupiers and owners of premises situated in Queen Street." In Allen's bequest the property is referred to as three tenements.

In the Council's ms. collection are:

(fn. 2) The panelled room (measured drawing).

Front to Queen Street (photograph).

Cast-iron balustrade to stair (photograph).

Fireplace, ground floor (photograph).

(fn. 2) Panelled room (photograph).

Another view of same (photograph).

(fn. 2) Plaster ceiling (photograph).

Two more views of same (photograph).