49 Bryanston Square London W1H 7LL Heritage Assessment
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49 Bryanston Square London W1H 7LL Heritage Assessment Anthony Walker Dip arch(dist), grad dip (cons)AA, RIBA, AABC DLG Architects LLP Unit 12G.01 The Leather Market, 11-13 Weston Street SE1 3ER INDEX 1 Scope 2 Site Location and setting 3 Historical background and significance 4 Relevant Conservation Legislation and Guidance 5 Proposals 6 Summary 1 Scope 1.1 This Heritage Assessment has been prepared to support planning and listed building applications for number 49 Bryanston Square which is listed grade II and located within the Portman Conservation Area. 1.2 It has been prepared by chartered architect Anthony Walker who has a post- graduate diploma in Building Conservation. It is based on a desktop study of 49 Bryanston Square, the listing description, the Portman Conservation Area Audit together with to Local History Studies and Planning material. 2 Layout 2.1 The site lies in the Portman Estate Conservation Area which is situated within boundaries of Marylebone. Until the middle of the 18th century the area now identified as being the Portman Estate Conservation Area was mainly open fields and marshland. 2.2 Numbers 49 and 50 are a pair of buildings at the southern end of Bryanston Square facing north on to George Street c1811 which runs east/west across the bottom of the Bryanston Square. 2.3 The Square was named after its founder Henry Portman’s home village of Bryanston in Dorset and built together with Montagu Square to the east. Both are elongated forms running north south. 2.4 Bryanston Square is 240m long by 61m wide and surrounded with terraced buildings many of which are merged together, converted or subdivided. 2.5 The pair of houses, 49 and 50, are probably by Joseph Parkinson born 1783-1855. He was the son of a land agent and museum owner. In 1811 he laid out Bryanston Square and designed houses in the adjoining Montague Square to the east. Later he was surveyor to the Union Fire Assurance Company and District Surveyor to the City of Westminster. 2.6 The section in the Conservation Area Audit relevant to this Audit are: 3.14 Portman Square was laid out circa. 1764 onwards, the houses being mostly built by 1769 and completed circa. 1784. Two Grade I properties, Nos. 20 & 21, and one Grade II, No 19, remain on the northern side of the Square and are a vital reminder of original scale of development in this area and the composition of the Square when built. Manchester Square, laid out in 1776, was largely built by 1800 . The east, north and lower western sides retain the original terraced properties which form an important early ensemble. Bryanston and Montagu Squares were laid out 1810-11 by J T Parkinson and completed by 1821. The former retaining a large number of the original properties and latter almost intact. 3.15 The Georgian terraces are generally of London stock brick, with recessed timber- sash windows under flat gauged brick arches. They range in height from three, four and in some instances five storeys with basements. The majority of first rate residential properties have stucco at ground floor level, normally channelled with modest detailing. Stucco work is also evident to the upper floors and is used in the composition of the terrace as whole. Other features include cast iron balconets to 1st floor windows, timber door cases, porches and decorative fanlights. 3 Historical background and significance 3.1 Both 49 and 50 are listed grade II and noted as having significance for their Group Value. The listing description reads: Pair of terraced town houses c1811 probably by Joseph Parkinson, for the Portman Estate. Stock brick with stuccoed ground floor; concealed slate roofs. 4 storeys and basement. Each front 2 windows wide. Entrances to left; No. 49 has panelled and semicircular fanlight; No. 50 has square headed architraved doorway with fanlight and 2 ground floor windows, all flanked by reeded pilasters rising to Greek fret plat band; ground floor window to No. 49 is a small later C.19 canted bay. The upper floors have recessed glazing bar sashes and French casements on 1st floor, under flat gauged arches (red brick to No. 50). Continuous cast iron balconies to 1st floor; parapet with coping. Cast iron area railings with urn finials. 3.2 John Summerson, in his book on Georgian London, notes that the axis of Great Cumberland Place was extended between 1810 and 1815 and formed the centre line of an oblong plan which Summerson refers to as being inappropriately named Bryanston Square. 3.3 Summerson describes Montagu Square as ‘a plain, uniform regiment of brown brick houses’ but ‘Bryanston Square is more ambitious with three quarter Ionic columns in stucco’. Joseph Parkinson was named as the architect for the layout and the facades which were produced in1811. An hierarchical grid of streets was laid out with first, second and third rate houses on the main squares and terraces. 3.4 In the appendix to his book Georgian London Summerson describes Bryanston Square as ‘Long and narrow, …..On an axial line which runs from St Mary’s Church in the north through Wyndham Place and Bryanston Square to Great Cumberland Place. The Square has symmetrically treated on the east and west sides, with Ionic centres and ends but has been partially rebuilt. 3.5 There is a strong network of routes running north/south and east /west. These are clearly identified in Figure 8 of the Conservation Area Audit where Bryanston Square forms a dominant north/south link. 3.6 The architectural and historical characteristics of the Conservation Area are set out in the Conservation Area Audit paragraphs 3.12 to 3.20. 3.7 Figure 6 of the Conservation Audit identifies properties where roof top extensions are unlikely to be acceptable. 4 Relevant Conservation Legislation and Guidance 4.1 The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 states that ‘the local planning authority shall have special regard to the desirability of preserving the building or its setting or any features of special architectural or interest which it possesses.’ 4.2 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)2019 In Section 1, Paragraph 184, it is confirmed that the objective is to conserve assets in a manner appropriate to their significance. 4.3 London Plan POLICY 7.8 HERITAGE ASSETS AND ARCHAEOLOGY A London’s heritage assets and historic environment, including listed buildings, registered historic parks and gardens and other natural and historic landscapes, conservation areas, World Heritage Sites, registered battlefields, scheduled monuments, archaeological remains and should be identified, so that the desirability of sustaining and enhancing their significance and of utilising their positive role in place shaping can be taken into account. B Development should incorporate measures that identify, record, interpret, protect and, where appropriate, represent the site’s archaeology. C Development should identify, value, conserve, restore, re-use and incorporate heritage assets, where appropriate. D Development affecting heritage assets and their settings should conserve their significance, by being sympathetic to their form, scale, materials and architectural detail. 4.4 City of Westminster Saved Policies Policy 3.15 – Conservation of the Historic Environment Development should preserve or enhance the special interest or historic character or appearance of buildings or areas of historical or architectural significance. Planning proposals that have an adverse effect on the historic environment will not be permitted. 4.5 Conservation Area Audit. 4.5.1 The Local Planning Authority has a duty to review the character and boundaries of its conservation areas. This is done by means of the Conservation Area Audits which for the Portman Estate Conservation Area were adopted as Supplementary Guidance on 27th November 2003. 4.5.2 The detail for Portman Estate is set out in the Conservation Audit number 8 published by the City of Westminster. 4.6 Planning Applications 4.6.1 Ref number 18/00375/LBC. Received January 2018. Replacement of pitched roof coverings and to ground floor bay window. 4.6.2 Ref number 03/01687/LBC Alterations to two internal front rooms at ground and first floor levels. Received March 2003. 4.6.3 Ref number 88/03594/LBC Repair and reinstatement of existing premises for residential use. Received July 1988 5 Proposals 5.1 Ground Floor 5.1.1 Existing layout based on plans dated 1991 to illustrate the building layout. Large front room, two midsized rooms, one behind the front room and the other at the end of the back room behind the main staircase. WC and basin between main stair and general purpose room. 5.1P Ground floor PHOTOS 5.1.2The proposals for the ground floor converts the two main rooms in the body of the house to form a linear kitchen/diner looking out over the back courtyard. The back closet wing retained its use as a Utility and small lavatory. A corridor is retained running the length of the building with a small stair down to the basement below the main stair. A fully glazed screen is proposed looking out from the ground floor kitchen onto the back yard and a narrow glazed light well is formed along the southern site boundary. A central flush roof light is proposed in the ceiling of the basement media room. 5.1.3 The layout of the main reception (dining room) at the front of the building has been revised so that the stub wall between it and the dining room are rationalised and provide a clear route through to the courtyard at the back of the site. 5.1.4 The window at the front of 49 had been fitted with a shallow projecting bay window with an equally small pitched roof over the front.