Summary
Northern part of a crescent of town houses, built circa 1775-1789 as part of the Portman Estate development, begun by the developer Abraham Adams, and completed by William Porden. This part of the crescent was originally five houses; the most northerly (42 Great Cumberland Place) was rebuilt in the 1950s, and the southern four are now grouped together and redeveloped behind the frontage as a hotel (the Montcalm Hotel, 2 Wallenberg Place).
Reasons for Designation
Number 2 Wallenberg Place, formerly the northern part of a 1775-1789 crescent built as part of the Portman Estate, now much rebuilt as a hotel and flats, but retaining the majority of the historic frontage, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* For the late-C18 façade, which survives as a well-detailed and well-documented example of high-status London terraced housing of the period;
* For the association with the noted architect William Porden, who was responsible for completing the unfinished buildings in 1788-1789.
Historic interest:
* As part of a projected circus, intended as a key feature within the Portman Estate development, but never completed.
Group value:
* With TP Bennett’s circa 1960 complex now occupying the southern part of the site, which includes the Western Marble Arch Synagogue and the former Portman Estate office; this development respects the external unity of the late-C18 crescent;
* With the numerous nearby listed buildings which form part of the wider C18 planning of the Portman Estate.
History
Wallenberg Place, formerly 26-40 Great Cumberland Place (even), forms the principal part of a crescent opening from Great Cumberland Place, originally intended as the eastern part of a complete circus, and built circa 1775-1789 as part of the Portman Estate development. Building work began under the direction of the developer Abraham Adams, but was fraught with difficulties, and the crescent was finally completed in 1788-1789 by William Porden. The crescent consisted of substantial three-storey houses, raised by a storey and given mansard roofs during the early C20. As a result of Second World War bombing, the most northerly house (number 42 Great Cumberland Place) was demolished and rebuilt as flats with a facsimile facade in 1955-1957, by architects Wills and Kaula, and the Estate's surveyor MJ Coward. The southern end of the crescent was also badly bombed, and was redeveloped in 1959-1961 to designs by TP Bennett and Son, providing a synagogue – the Marble Arch Synagogue, later merged with the Western Synagogue to become the Western Marble Arch Synagogue (now 1 Wallenberg Place) – and a headquarters building for the Portman Estate (now 38 Seymour Street), as well as a number of flats (number 24 Great Cumberland Place). The principal, western frontage of the new development followed the design of the original houses closely.
The northern part of Wallenberg Place, consisting of four former houses, grouped under the address 2 Wallenberg Place, was developed behind the Georgian frontage as the Montcalm Hotel in the early 1970s. To the east, the former carriage-housing and stabling to Quebec Mews has been replaced by extensions to the hotel. Number 42 Great Cumberland Place was rebuilt as flats and remains in that use.
In 2014 numbers 26-40 Great Cumberland Place were renamed Wallenberg Place, in honour of the Swede, Raoul Wallenberg, responsible for saving as many as 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Second World War; in 1997 a monument to Wallenberg by Philip Jackson was unveiled in the crescent, close to the Swedish embassy as well as to the Western Marble Arch Synagogue.
Details
Northern part of a crescent of town houses, built circa 1775-1789 as part of the Portman Estate development, begun by the developer Abraham Adams, and completed by William Porden. This part of the crescent was originally five houses; the most northerly (42 Great Cumberland Place) was rebuilt in the 1950s, and the southern four are now grouped together and redeveloped behind the frontage as a hotel (the Montcalm Hotel, 2 Wallenberg Place).
MATERIALS: stock brick with stucco banded rustication to the ground floors. The southern four houses have slate-covered C20 dormered mansard roofs, later extended into flat roofs to the rear. Number 42 Great Cumberland Place has a flat roof. There are brick stacks. Window openings to the front elevation hold sash frames, some possibly original.
PLAN: the group follows a crescent form, with the street frontage to the west, and number 42 Great Cumberland Street forming the corner with Upper Berkeley Street to the north.
EXTERIOR: the principal frontage to what is now Wallenberg Place is fairly uniform, with each of the houses being three windows wide, arranged over three original storeys with basement, with a later attic storey above the cornice. Each house has a semicircular-arched doorway in the southern bay, with side-lights between narrow pilasters, and a reeded frieze below a fanlight; the openings hold six-panelled doors. Alterations have been made to some of the doorways: there is a mid-C19 Doric portico to the doorway of the former number 39, and a later architrave to the doorway of the former number 41. The windows are recessed under flat gauged arches. A platband finishes the ground-floor stucco work; there is a stucco main entablature over the second floor and a secondary cornice and blocking course to the later attic storey. The majority of the houses have delicate individual semi-circular balconies to each first-floor window; there are later cast-iron balconies to the former numbers 36 and 38.
The west elevation (to Great Cumberland Place) of the rebuilt number 42, and the north elevation (to Upper Berkeley Street), are similarly detailed, though without doorways or balconies. The north elevation of the former number 40 (to Upper Berkeley Street) does have balconies. A historic photograph taken in 1957 shows that at that time this part of the building was still three storeys, but it has since been raised to four storeys in line with the rest of the group; the eastern ground-floor window has been converted to a door opening since that time.
The east elevation of the four southerly houses has been rebuilt on a stepped plan following the curve of the crescent.
INTERIORS: The historic houses are understood to have been completely or almost completely rebuilt behind the street frontage.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the buildings have cast-iron area railings with spearhead finials.
