Reasons for Designation
Blenstock House, at 7 Blenheim Street, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* eye-catching use of materials on the façade which is clad in buff, yellow and peach faience;
* a distinctive and stylish example of Art Deco architecture, with bent glass vertical windows, stair tower, flagpole and rooftop advertising frame;
* surviving bronze shop front at ground floor level, relatively rare in London's West End.
Details
1900/0/10460 BLENHEIM STREET
15-DEC-09 7
Bonhams (Blenstock House)
II
Offices and showrooms, 1937, by Fuller, Hall and Foulsham. Later alterations which lack special interest.
EXTERIOR: Blenstock House faces the corner of Blenheim and Woodstock Streets and is a steel-framed building with a faience-clad façade, in buff with accents of yellow and peach. The frontage is composed of a curved stair tower to the left and three bay elevation set back to the right. The former has a tall window on its curved edge, this with continuous full-height yellow faience mullions, stone sills, horizontal metal glazing bars and bent glass panes. The latter has a central projecting vertical window, also with bent glass, metal frames and stone sills, flanked by horizontal rectangular windows to each of the three upper floors. There is fluted peach faience edging around both vertical windows, along the parapet and above the fascia. The ground floor retains the original bronze shop windows, one with bent glass, and two entrances, one (to the left) with the original bronze door and terrazzo lobby floor, the other with a modern door. The sill of the shop windows is studded with a series of bronze acorns. The bronze lettering on the ground floor reading 'Sprinkler Stop Valve Inside' is also probably original. The façade is capped by a steel frame to which is affixed (modern) lettering reading 'Bonhams 1793' and a flagpole.
The building is back to back with other buildings facing Haunch of Venison Yard and New Bond Street, and so there are no other public-facing elevations. Those sections to the rear which are visible, overlooking lightwells in this densely-developed part of central London, are plainer than the façade, in pale grey brick with rows of wide metal windows and some original doors to the fire escape. The buildings behind Bonham's main offices at 101 New Bond Street, with which Blenstock House interconnects, are not included in the listing. The floor levels are different, and this should indicate the extent of listing internally; they are shown as separate buildings on OS maps too.
INTERIOR: A small number of original features. Chief of these is the principal stair with its brass handrail and metal horizontal balustrade, both of which terminate in a scroll at the base. Most of the internal doors are modern, though the upper floors retain some originals, but all the window fixtures are 1930s. A second staircase to the rear of the building, also with a metal balustrade, is much plainer than the principal stair. A small section of paint in the lobby of a secondary entrance from Globe Yard indicates that originally the basement was painted in green up to a thick black dado line, and cream above.
HISTORY: This commercial building was the premises of Phillips Auctioneers until the firm was taken over by Bonhams in 2001. Phillips was founded in 1796 by Harry Phillips, a young entrepreneur and former senior clerk to fellow-auctioneer James Christie. Before expanding into 7 Blenheim Street, the firm was based at 72-3 New Bond Street. Phillips held their first auction here in August 1939.
The building, also known as Blenstock House (a flippant merging of Blenheim Street and Woodstock Street, the names of the two streets on which it stands), was speculatively built as a showroom and offices and then leased to Phillips. This area was first developed from 1720 on the land of the 1st Duke of Portland, also Viscount Woodstock, hence the Oxfordshire street names. Other floors of Blenstock House were rented out to other companies from the outset. In 1946 Berker Sportcraft Ltd, sportswear manufacturers, were tenants; by 1951 there were two additional companies: Glendining and Co Ltd, auction rooms, and Fina Petroleum Products Ltd. Phillips gradually expanded into other floors until they occupied the whole building in 1974. In 1989 Blenstock House was interconnected with the rear of other Phillips' premises at 101 New Bond Street and the whole became Bonhams' Auctioneers in 2001.
Fuller, Hall and Foulsham is a little-known practice which designed a small number of Art Deco style buildings. Among those are Ibex House, Minories, City of London of 1937, a Moderne office block faced with black and buff-coloured faience with continuous horizontal window bands (qv).
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Blenstock House, at 7 Blenheim Street, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* eye-catching use of materials on the facade which is clad in buff, yellow and peach faience;
* a distinctive and stylish example of Art Deco architecture, with bent glass vertical windows, stair tower, flagpole and rooftop advertising banner;
* surviving bronze shop front at ground floor level, relatively rare in London's West End.
