NUMBERS 40-54 AND ATTACHED RAILINGS

33 AND 35, BEDFORD AVENUE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1244553
Date first listed:: 24-Oct-1951
List Entry Name:: NUMBERS 40-54 AND ATTACHED RAILINGS
Statutory Address:: 33 AND 35, BEDFORD AVENUE

User submitted image — Uploaded by David Lovell This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2005-01-16
Reference:: IOE01/13807/16
Rights:: © Mr Anthony Rau. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1244553
Date first listed:: 24-Oct-1951
Date of most recent amendment:: 11-Jan-1999
List Entry Name:: NUMBERS 40-54 AND ATTACHED RAILINGS
Statutory Address 1:: 33 AND 35, BEDFORD AVENUE
Statutory Address 2:: NUMBERS 40-54 AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, 40-54, BEDFORD SQUARE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: 33 AND 35, BEDFORD AVENUE
Statutory Address:: NUMBERS 40-54 AND ATTACHED RAILINGS, 40-54, BEDFORD SQUARE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Camden (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 29877 81608

Details

TQ 2981 NE 798-1/99/80

CAMDEN BEDFORD AVENUE Nos.33 AND 35

GV

I

See under: Nos.40-54 and attached railings BEDFORD SQUARE.

TQ2981NE 798-1/99/80

CAMDEN BEDFORD SQUARE (South side) Nos.40-54 (Consecutive) and attached railings Includes: Nos.33 AND 35 BEDFORD AVENUE. (Formerly Listed as BEDFORD SQUARE Nos.1-54 (Consecutive)) GV

I

Terrace of 15 houses forming the south side of a square. No.54 formed by the return of No.53 to Bloomsbury Street. All built by W Scott and R Grews; probably designed by Thomas Leverton or Robert Palmer; for the Bedford Estate. Nos 40-53 form a symmetrical terrace. Yellow stock brick with evidence on most of the houses of tuck pointing. Plain stucco band at 1st floor level. The centre houses, Nos 46 & 47 are stuccoed. Slate mansard roofs with dormers and tall slab chimney-stacks. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, attics and basements. 3 windows each. Recessed, round-headed entrances with Coade stone vermiculated intermittent voussoirs and bands; mask keystones. Enriched impost bands and cornice-heads to doors. Side lights to panelled doors, some 2-leaf. Fanlights, mostly radial patterned. Gauged brick flat arches to recessed sashes, most with glazing bars. Nos 40-47 & 53 have cast-iron balconies to 1st floor windows. Cornice and parapet, Nos 40 & 53 with balustraded parapets. INTERIORS not inspected but noted to contain original stone stairs with cast and wrought-iron balusters of various scroll designs, decoration and features; special features as mentioned: No.40: 4-window return to Adeline Place, 3 blind. Rear elevation has a full height canted bay. INTERIOR has fine plasterwork, ceiling with 5 restored painted panels and joinery. No.41: rear elevation with a full height bowed bay. A fine plaster ceiling. No.42: a fine plaster ceiling and friezes. Interesting original staircase in the canted bay at the rear. No.43: rear elevation has a full height bowed bay. A fine plaster ceiling. No.44: rear elevation has a full height canted bay. Good detailing and a fine plaster ceiling. Nos 46 & 47: rusticated ground floor; 5 Ionic pilasters rise through the 1st and 2nd storeys to support a frieze, with roundels above each pilaster, and pediment with delicate swag and roundel enrichment on the tympanum. At 2nd floor level a continuous enriched band running behind the pilasters. Rear elevations with full height canted bays. INTERIORS have identical form staircases which terminate with a series of winders at the head of a straight flight and returns with a long landing. No.46 with some curved doors; No.47 with 2 fine plaster ceilings. No.48: rear elevation with full height canted bay which is bowed internally. A fine plaster ceiling and good friezes. No.49: rear elevation with full height canted bay. 2 fine plaster ceilings. No.50: rear elevation with full height canted bay which is bowed internally. 2 fine plaster ceilings. No.51: rear elevation with full height canted bay which is bowed internally. 2 fine plaster ceilings. Courtyard retains original York stone paving. No.52: rear elevation with full height canted bay. Friezes of interest but otherwise plain. No.53: return to Bloomsbury Street forming No.54. 4 blind windows and entrance with Gibbs surround and sash to right. Rear elevation with a full height canted bay. Some houses with original lead rainwater heads and pipes. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached cast-iron railings to areas with urn or torch flambe finials. Most houses with good wrought-iron foot scrapers. HISTORICAL NOTE: the houses in Bedford Square form a very important and complete example of C18 town planning. Built as a speculation, it is not clear who designed all the houses. Leverton was a country house architect and may have been involved with only the grander houses; he lived at No.13 (qv). Palmer was the Bedford Estate surveyor and may be responsible for the vagaries of the square. The majority of the plots leased by the estate were taken by Robert Grews, a carpenter, and William Scott, a brickmaker. The following have plaques or tablets: No.41 was the residence of Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins, novelist; No.42 of William Butterfield, architect; and No.49 of Ram Mohun Roy, Indian scholar and reformer (LCC / GLC plaques). Nos 50 & 51 have oval plaques inscribed "St. G.F.1859" and "St. G.B. 1823", the line that divides the parishes of St Giles in the Fields and St George, Bloomsbury running along the party wall. (Byrne A: Bedford Square, An architectural study: London: -1990).

Listing NGR: TQ2980381514

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 476705
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Byrne, A, Bedford Square An Architectural Study, (1990)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.