The Royal Overseas League, Including Rutland House and Its Former Gatehouse, Number 16 Arlington Street, and Vernon House to the South

Details

TQ 2980 SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER ARLINGTON STREET, SW1 81/9 No 16 (part of Royal Overseas 24.2.58 League)

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the list entry and description shall be replaced by the following two entries:

TQ 2980 SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER PARK PLACE, SW1

1900-/81/9 No 6 (the Royal Overseas league - including Rutland 24.2.58 House and its former gatehouse, no. 16 Arlington Street, and Vernon House to the south) (formerly listed as no. 16 Arlington Street)

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Club building formed from Rutland House, 1735-6, designed by James Gibbs, and Vernon House, late C17/early C18, substantially rebuilt 1835 and in 1904 following a fire. 1937 extensions to the east, former principle fronts of Rutland House. The former gatehouse to Rutland House, no. 16 Arlington Street, is also included in this listing. The only exterior wall of Rutland House now faces Queen's Walk, Green Park and was the original rear elevation; it is appropriately plain, constructed from red brick with a slate roof and having a 4-window range; three storeys over high basement; fourth storey added. Flat-arched windows with gauged brick lintels; sashes rebuilt to an authentic, C18 design; storey bands and cast-iron balustrade to first floor on shaped stone brackets. The original facade obscured by tawny brick extension to east of 1937, whick links up with the gatehouse of the 1730s. The elevation of this gatehouse faces Arlington Street: brown brick, partly roofed by slated mansard; 2-window range to left and large, rusticated carriageway arch to right; panelled, wooden double doors with hinges of an original design; sashes of an original design; stone entablature below parapet and first-floor storey band. The idea of entering a city mansion through a separate gatehouse was unusual at the time, and set a precedent for later buildings; several in Arlington Street adopted this feature. Interior of Rutland House mostly intact on ground and first floors, where many outstanding original features survive, including: grand stone staircase with one of the earliest wrought-iron balustrades in the country, the whole topped by a glazed domed lantern; Ionic colonnade; several chimney pieces of early to mid C18 date, chief among them the large marble fireplace in the Rutland Room designed by John Rysbrack (1694-1770); to rear of main stair an unusual 'Crinoline stair', its balusters bowed to make room for women in hoop dresses. History: Built as the home for the Duchess of Norfolk (ob. 1754). The current name derives from 1816, when John, the Fifth Duke of Rutland, came into ownership of the house. Sold to the Royal Overseas League in 1934 by the Eighth Duchess of Rutland, following the death of the Eighth Duke. It was at this time that the chief entrance was moved from Arlington Street to Park Place, through Vernon House. Vernon House, to the east. c1835, on the site of a late C17/ early C18 house named after the family who owned it from c1700 to the early C19. It was extensively rebuilt after a fire in 1902; the early C19 brick can still be glimpsed in the top floor, above the Portland stone facing to Queen's Walk; some early C19 construction mingled with later brick and Portland Stone to courtyard facing Park Place. Elevation to Park Place: Two bays, with three-window range; pair of windows to left grouped within quoin strips; right-hand range with Palladian window set in rusticated aedicule with bowed porch to centre opening; ashlared and rusticated ground floor, with entrance under Ionic aedicule and a pair of round-arched window to right; parapet band to first-floor windows; cartouche between first and second floors; all openings unless otherwise noted above are flat arched with architraves; modillioned cornice to top floor; three dormers to slate mansard roof; stack to south wall. Elevation to Green Park: faced in Portland stone to second floor with original brick above; two-window range, that to right treated as three-storey segmental bay with tripartite windows; first-floor balcony on stone brackets, enclosed by cast-iron railings of an original design; cast-iron railing to French door on first-floor of bay; cast-iron balcony and stair from ground-floor to garden level; swags to ground-floor entablature band; chamfered rustication to basement. Interior of Vernon House: Open well stair to main entrance, wood balustrade and panelling; lobby with moulded panels and cornice to right; steps up at party wall to Rutland House. The rooms to the bay on the south were once oval in plan; their east end of which now taken up with a lift shaft, but the west end with original fireplaces and mouldings; of particular note is the first-floor director's office, with wall panelling in Rococo Revival style and polished marble chimneypiece. Also of note is the ground-floor Brabourne Room, or the Buttery, with Ionic screen at east end, and finely moulded cornice, walls, and chimney piece. The Mountbatten and Willingdon Drawing Rooms on the first floor decorated in a Regency Revival style. Vernon House was purchased by the League from Lady Hillingdon in 1921. Also included are the stone gate piers, wood double doors, attached railings and light fixtures to courtyard entered from Park Place.

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TQ 2980 SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER ARLINGTON STREET, SW1 81/9 24.2.58 No 16 (Part of Royal Overseas League)

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Town mansion, 1736 by James Gibbs, with C19 and early C20 alterations and extensions. West elevation to Green Park: red brick, slate roof. 4 storeys with basement at Park level and dormered attic. 4 windows wide. Revealed sash windows, no glazing bars, under flat gauged arches. Double plat band to ground floor; stone balcony on shaped brackets with cast iron balustrade across 1st floor, cornice over 2nd floor and stone band below-parapet. The house was extended east towards Arlington Street in 1937 with a utilitarian yellow brick range linking up with the 1730s coach house of brown brick with a slate roof, which presents a 2 bay facade to Arlington Street and a large rusticated carriage archway to the right with wooden double panelled doors; revealed glazing bar sash windows on both floors to left. Stone entablature below parapet and 1st floor plat band. The interior of the mansion retains numerous fine features including a grand stone staircase, the glazed dome compartment screened on ground floor by Ionic columns, the stairs with fine wrought iron balustrade, doorcases, chimneypieces etc of c. 1740 in a number of rooms etc.

Listing NGR: TQ2917480254

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

208551

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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