Great Pulteney Street

Names

  • Great Pulteney Street
  • Great Pultney Street
  • Great Poultney Street

Street/Area/District

  • Great Pulteney Street

Maps & Views

Descriptions

from Lockie's Topography of London, by John Lockie (1810)

Pulteney-Street (Great), Brewer-Street, Golden-Square,—about five doors on the R. from Little Windmill-st. extending to Silver-street.

from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)

Pulteney-St., Great, Golden-square, is about five houses on the right hand side of Brewer-street, going from Little Windmill-street.

from Survey of London: Volumes 31-32, St. James Westminster, Part 2, ed. F.H.W. Sheppard (London County Council; British History Online) (1963)

Great Pulteney Street

Nos. 1 and 41–43 are matching four-storeyed houses of yellow brick, Nos. 41–43 having been built in 1831 and let to Thomas Adams, upholsterer and cabinet-maker.113 No. 1 was probably built at the same time. Each has a return front two windows wide to Brewer Street, and a rounded and recessed angle, thus forming a uniform feature at the southern end of the street.

Nos. 2–3, which were erected in 1888–90 by Benjamin John Green, builder,114 comprise a four-storeyed warehouse building with a lavishly glazed front. The wide centre is set between narrower, slightly projecting wings, the latter being flanked by yellow brick pilasters.

No. 20 is a public house called the Sun and Thirteen Cantons, which has existed on this site since at least 1756.115 The present red brick building was erected in 1882 to the designs of Henry Cotton.116 Its main feature is a steep gable with a pointed window framed by a series of stepped orders in cut brick.

… In July 1718 John Mulcaster, who was a servant to Henry Guy22 and who appears to have acted in some legal capacity for William Pulteney,23 applied, on Pulteney's behalf, to the Commissioners of Sewers to make a sewer for new buildings in Brewer Street and in a new intended street to run from Brewer Street to Silver (now Beak) Street through Red Lyon Yard.24

The latter was Great Pulteney Street, which also obliterated the streets named in the key to Strype's map (Plate 5) as Gravel Lane, Little Silver Street and Little Peter Street. All the leases for Great Pulteney Street were granted in 1719 and 1720, and all of them were due to expire around 1780. The east side of Bridle Lane and most of Little Windmill Street (the northern part of which was called Cambridge Street, and the whole of which is now Lexington Street), were also rebuilt. Except in part of Little Windmill Street the building agreements for Windmill Field were similar to those elsewhere on the Pulteney estate (see page 9), the new houses being required to be of the second of the four rates prescribed by the Act of 1667 for the rebuilding of the City after the Great Fire. In Little Windmill Street it was not always stipulated that the houses should fulfil these requirements, lead for the gutters etc., for example, being sometimes required to be at least 6 lbs. per foot instead of 7 lbs. per foot as elsewhere.23 Some of the houses built at this time have survived, though many have been considerably altered, and are described below.

Those who entered into building agreements included Edward Collens of St. James's, carpenter; Thomas Cook of St. Anne's, carpenter; Mark Dixon of St. James's, carpenter; Nicholas Dubois of St. Martin's, esquire; John Legg of St. Martin's, carpenter; William Ludbey of St. James's, citizen and carpenter of London; Francis Martin of St. James's, coach-painter; Leonard Martin, junior, of St. Margaret's, brewer; Edward Mawle of St. Benet's, London, lime merchant; John Mist of St. Anne's, paviour; John Mulcaster of St. James's, gentleman; Richard Nicholson of St. James's, carpenter; Thomas Reading of St. James's, carpenter; William Robinson of St. James's, mason; Edward Shepherd of St. James's, plasterer; Peter Steel(e) of St. James's, bricklayer; Caleb Waterfield of St. Anne's, carpenter; and John Wilder of St. James's, coachmaker.25

Other tradesmen who took building leases (apart from those listed in the table below) were Thomas Abbott of St. Anne's, joiner;26 Henry Avery of St. Martin's, bricklayer;27 William Baker of St. James's, mason;28 John Hironof St. Martin's, joiner;29 the widow of John James of St. James's, carpenter;30 Thomas Morton of St. James's, bricklayer;31 Thomas Sams, joiner;32 Thomas Steers of Greenwich, lime burner;33 John Till of St. James's, bricklayer;34 Richard Thornton of St. James's, bricklayer;35 John Walker of St. Martin's, bricklayer;36 and Thomas Whitford of St. Martin's, plasterer.37

During the progress of this rebuilding an Act of Parliament was passed enabling the Crown to grant to William Pulteney the freehold of part of the family estate,38 and in February 1721/2 a rectangular plot on the east corner of Brewer and Sherwood Streets was granted to him in fee.39, 2 The site of Ayres's brewery (see below) at the rear of the east side of Little Windmill Street, and the small triangular island of land at the western end of Brewer Street, bounded by Brewer, Glasshouse and Air Streets, were granted in 1830 to the trustees of the Sutton estate (on whom the Pulteney estate had by then devolved) as parts of a larger exchange of land between the Crown and Sir Richard Sutton.40 The triangular island was sold by the Sutton estate in 1918.41

Great Pulteney Street was laid out during the general redevelopment of the Pulteney estate in the early eighteenth century (fig. 14). Between 20 March 1718/19 and 12 December 1720 Sir William Pulteney granted some thirty-six leases, all due to expire around 1780, to twenty lessees, most of whom were building craftsmen. Two more leases were granted on 27 August 1722. Only one lease was taken jointly by two lessees. Peter Steel(e), bricklayer, was granted five leases (of Nos. 4–9 Great Pulteney Street); Charles George, joiner, and William Ludbey, citizen and carpenter, each had four, and several others three. Most of the houses were first occupied in 1723, but a few were inhabited in 1720, and all by 1726; in only two cases was the lessee also the first occupant. All the leases are tabulated on pages below.

Many of the houses built at this time still survive (Plate 125, figs. 15–17). At Nos. 4–10 the plots were extremely limited in depth owing to the existence of Peter Street and the adjoining brewery buldings. The Street was never fashioable, nor has it ever been identified with any particular branch of trade or industry (as have Savile Row and Sackville Street), but there have been one or two famous musical instrument makers, notably Kirkman's, harpsichord and pianoforte makers, which was established here in 1739, and Broadwood's.

Great Pulteney Street (see fig. 14)

Leases Granted by William Pulteney

No. Date of lease M.L.R. reference Term of years Rent Frontage Lessee Designation Address Associated builders or architects First occupant Period of residence
£ s. d.
EAST SIDE
1–3 (with 44 Brewer Street) 15 September 1719 1729/6/133 60 from Christmas 1718 16 10 0 75' 4" (33' to Brewer Street) John Wilder coachmaker St. James's Charles George, joiner, sub-lessee 1. — Lamorris
2. Richard Diggs
3. John Aldworth		 1726
1720–3
1723
4–7 7 July 1719 1719/4/111 60 from Midsummer 1720 3 0 0 30' Peter Steele bricklayer do. William Hymens 1724
5 August 1720 1720/2/148 do. do. 29' do. do. Widow Randall 1723–4
1720/6/234 do. do. do. do. do. Richard Holdsworth 1721–31
8 12 December 1720 1720/2/328 do. do. do. do. do. Bridget Hill 1723–4
9 do. 1720/2/329 do. do. 28' do. do. Jermyn Philips 1723–7
10 5 August 1720 1720/3/193 60 from Christmas 1719 4 0 0 35' John Evans joiner St. Martin's John Legg, carpenter, party to lease J. du Portal 1723–4
11 do. 1720/6/219 do. do. 19' John Bates do. St. James's do. under articles of agreement 3 April 1719 May or Mary Evans 1723–6
12 23 March 1719/20 1720/2/18 do. 5 0 0 do. James Perry sawyer St. Martin's do. Benjamin Radcliffe 1723–35
13 do. 1720/2/16 do. 4 0 0 do. John Evans joiner St. James's do. Nathaniel Taylor 1723
14 do. 1720/2/19 do. do. 17' James Perry sawyer St. Martin's do. — Lammery (? Paul de Lamerie, goldsmith) 1723–4
15 do. 1720/2/17 do. do. 17' 4" John Evans joiner St. James's do. Ann Roberts 1723–39
16 12 December 1720 1720/2/274 do. 2 0 0 20' Elizabeth Roberts widow do. do. Ann Wilson 1723–36
17 23 March 1719/20 1721/1/20 60 from Christmas 1719 2 0 0 20' 10" Richard Streatley (Streetly) joiner St. James's John Legg, party to lease under articles of agreement 3 April 1719 Elizabeth Leach 1723–9
18 do. 1721/1/19 do. 3 0 0 do. Caleb Waterfield and Thomas Cooke carpenters do. do. John Burton 1721–3
19 15 September 1719 1719/5/173 61 from Christmas 1718 4 0 0 20' Robert Terry plumber do. do. Thomas Lawes 1723–8
WEST SIDE
20 7 May 1719 1719/5/82 61 from Mich. 1718 7 0 0 34' (18' 6" to Silver Street) Edward Shepherd plasterer do. Thomas Brooks 1721–35
(There is no No. 21)
22 27 August 1722 1722/4/156 58 from Mich. 1721 2 12 0 16' Thomas Sams joiner St. Clement Danes Edward Shepherd, party to lease Alexander Macqueen 1723–7
23 do. 1722/4/160 do. 2 10 0 20' Isaac Mansfield plasterer St. James's do. Isaac Mansfield 1723–35
24 12 December 1720 1720/6/292 61 from Christmas 1719 10 6 0 2l' 8" Edward Mawle lime merchant St. Benet's Lady or Dame Esther Grey 1726–33
25 do. 1720/6/290 do. 11 0 0 23' 2" John Bates joiner St. James's Edward Mawle, party to lease Gabriel Bourdon 1724–30
26 do. 1720/6/291 do. 9 11 6 20' 2" do. do. do. do. — Bealing 1723
27 28 November 1719 1719/5/217 60 from Mich. 1719 7 4 0 18' Charles George do. do. Francis Martin, coach-painter, and Richard Nicholson, carpenter, parties to lease Major [George] Sawyer 1723–36
28–31 and part of 32 28 November 1719 1719/5/216 60 from Mich. 1719 7 4 0 18' Charles George joiner St. James's Francis Martin, coach-painter, and Richard Nicholson, carpenter, parties to lease Mrs. Holmes 1723–6
13 May 1719 1719/3/117 61 from Mich. 1718 9 5 0 18' 6" Richard Nicholson carpenter do. Francis Martin, party to lease Captain Hide 1721–6
do. 1719/3/116 do. do. do. Francis Martin coach-painter do. Richard Nicholson, party to lease — Zollicoffer 1721
16 March 1719/20 1720/4/90 60 from Mich. 1719 7 4 0 19' Richard Nicholson carpenter do. Francis Martin, party to lease Sarah Lewis 1723–7
7 March 1719/20 1719/4/351 do. 11 12 0 do. Francis Martin coach-painter do. Richard Nicholson, party to lease Francis Martin 1720–34
part of 32 and Nos. 33–35 23 March 1719/20 or 5 August 1720 1720/1/10 61 from Midsummer 1718 or 60 from Midsummer 1719 8 0 0 do. Michael Helme victualler do. Daniel Thumond 1723–7
5 August 1720 1720/2/161 61 from Midsummer 1718 do. do. do. do. do. Alexander Ross 1723–38
do. 1720/3/175 do. 6 0 0 19' 4" John Till bricklayer do. Michael Helme, party to lease Colonel Darby 1723–33
do. 1720/2/162 do. 7 0 0 19' 6" John Reyniere carpenter do. do. John Smith 1723–4
36 23 March 1719/20 1720/1/12 do. 7 14 0 22' Charles George joiner do. Henry Talbot 1723–30
37 do. 1720/1/13 do. do. do. do. do. do. Madam Ogleby 1723–4
38 15 September 1719 1719/3/176 60 from Christmas 1718 5 0 0 19' William Ludb(e)y citizen and carpenter St. James's Articles of agreement 17 March 1717/18 for 61 years from       Christmas 1717 John Wymms or Wemiss 1720–3
39 do. 1719/3/175 do. do. do. do. do. do. do. Edmund Devall 1720–33
40 do. 1719/3/174 do. do. do. do. do. do. do. Mark Alpen or Halpenn 1720–8
41–43 20 March 1718/19 1719/5/30 61 from Christmas 1717 do. 43' (19' 2" to Brewer Street) do. do. do. do. William Pryer 1719–58

Occupants of note

First occupants are listed in the table of leases above and are not included here.

  1. Lady Buckworth, 1762–8.
  2. Captain Rainsford, 1748, ? Charles Rainsford, general.
  3. Jacob Kirkman, the founder of the firm of harpsichord and pianoforte manufacturers, 1739–50.
  4. Joseph Haydn, the composer, stayed with Johann P. Salomon at No. 18 Great Pulteney Street in 1791–2.111 Salomon's name does not appear in the ratebooks.
  5. Thomas Sandby, 1751–3, ? the architect; the Prussian envoy, 1781–8.
  6. Lady Conyers, 1734–40; Colonel (Lewis) Dejean, 1743–9.
  7. Colonel (Francis) Fuller, 1738–43; Captain Peregrine Fury of the Paymaster-General's Office, Auditor of the North Parts in the Duchy Court of Lancaster, 1744–59 (see also Nos. 28–32, 37); General Melville, 1774–80, ? Robert Melville, antiquary.
  8. Sir Richard Corbett, 1726–9; Lord Oliphant, 1758–70; General McLean, 1784–87, Allen McLean.
  9. William Oram, 1737–40, ? the painter and architect (see also Nos. 32–35).

group 28–32. Captain Peregrine Fury, 1730–3 (see also Nos. 25, 37); John Clegg, 1737, ? the violinist. Michael Christian Festing, musician, 1747– 1752. Major-General Henry Harrison, 1738–48.

group 32–35. Burkat Shudi, harpsichord-maker, 1742–74, founder of the firm carried on by his son-in-law, John Broadwood, which continued to occupy these premises until 1904. Lieutenant-General (James) Flemming, 1747– 1749; Colonel James Montresor, 1760–1; Dr. Wintringham, 1762, ? Sir Clifton Wintringham, physician. Lady Scott, 1759–62; Colonel (William) Roy, 1765–79. William Oram, 1747–9 (see also No. 27).

  1. Captain Peregrine Fury, 1734–43 (see also Nos. 25, 28–32).
  2. Abraham Kirkman, a member of the harpsichord manufacturing family, 1759–70.

Architectural description

Great Pulteney Street is among the broader and pleasanter of the complex of streets lying east of Regent Street and the slight bend half-way up gives it additional interest (Plate 125a). The original houses seem to have varied considerably in quality, but those on the west side were not much inferior to the houses on the east side of Sackville Street, a more fashionable part of the Pulteney estate. Many have now been demolished and replaced by large warehouse-type blocks, but thirteen survive, Nos. 8–13, 23 and 35–40.

Nos. 8–13 are all four-storeyed houses with basements, the fourth storey probably being an addition replacing a garret. The houses on the very shallow sites have broad fronts, Nos. 8 and 9 being four, and No. 10 five windows wide, while of the remainder No. 11 is two, and Nos. 12 and 13 three windows wide. The fronts have all been refaced in yellow brick in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, except for No. 9 which has been stuccoed and given giant flanking pilasters in the early or mid nineteenth century. The front of No. 8 looks original at first sight, but the flush frames and the Georgian-type shop-front are in fact of very recent date. The interiors of all six houses have been greatly altered, and No. 12 was gutted during the war of 1939–45. Nos. 8 and 9 are only one room deep with a staircase compartment in the second bay from the south, although the two houses have now been combined and the staircase at No. 8 removed altogether. Fragments of panelling remain, most of it entirely plain with a simply moulded dado-rail and a small wooden cornice, but there is ovolo-moulded panelling, some of it raised-and-fielded, in the first-floor rooms of No. 8. No. 10 is almost as shallow as Nos. 8 and 9, but it seems originally to have had four tiny rooms on each floor with a central staircase compartment running from east to west. The first-floor south front and back rooms have almost identical moulded plaster ceilings, consisting of a square centre panel with an oblong at each end. The frames of the panels are adorned with C-scrolls, the square panel in the front room also having festoons. In both rooms this panel contains a boss of acanthus leaves surrounded by C-scrolls and there are flowers in the oblong panels. The original panelling seems to have been quite simple with ovolo-moulded framing. No. 11 was probably refashioned internally in the mid nineteenth century, but substantial remnants of ovolo-moulded panelling suggest that it was not completely rebuilt. Each floor now has a front and a back room divided by a narrow staircase compartment, and on the ground floor the entrance passage runs the depth of the house. Nos. 12 and 13 have, or rather had, mirrored plans of the standard type with two rooms to a floor and a staircase compartment beside the back room, although No. 13 alone seems to have had a closet projecting at the back. At No. 13 the hall and front rooms on the ground and first floors retain substantial portions of ovolo-moulded panelling finished with box-cornices, while the back rooms and all the rooms on the second floor have plain panelling. There are fluted pilasters at the junction of the hall with the staircase compartment. The staircase is doglegged with cut strings, carved step-ends, turned balusters and column newels, the upper flights, starting from the half-space landing above the first floor, having closed strings and a different type of baluster and column newel.

No. 23 was until lately part of a group with Nos. 24–27, now demolished, which seem to have been among the finest houses in the street (Plate 125b); Nos. 23–26 probably had the additional amenity of their own stables at the back, opening on to Bridle Lane. All are, or were, three windows wide, and contained a basement and four storeys, the top storey being probably a later addition. Generalizations about Nos. 25 and 26 are, however, only tentative, since at the time of recording they were already in ruins after bombing in the war of 1939–45. No. 23 has been altered and stuccoed externally, probably in the late eighteenth century, and the only feature of interest in its front is the round-arched doorway with a rusticated architrave. Nos. 24, 25 and 26 all had fronts of pale yellow stock brick, the windows having segmental arches of red gauged brick. No. 24 had the additional features of red brick jambs to the windows and aprons with a fringe of guttae. The ground storeys had all been stuccoed, but the doorways remained, with moulded wooden architraves and cornices on carved consoles. The fronts of Nos. 25 and 26 mirrored each other exactly with doorways at opposite ends of their respective fronts, while the adjacent doorways of Nos. 24 and 25 had continued cornices.112 No. 27 also had a front of yellow stocks, but here the windows had flat gauged arches, the sole elaboration being that the centre voussoirs were raised and extended to resemble triple keystones. In plan the houses were similar, with the standard arrangement already described at No. 13. No. 24, however, and to judge by what remained No. 25 also had a secondary staircase inserted between the back room and the closet (fig. 15). The interior finishings at No. 23 are well preserved and so were those at Nos. 24 and 27, those at No. 24 being almost complete. The panelling on the ground and first floors was ovolo-moulded, being raised-and-fielded, except in the back rooms of the more modest No. 27, and finished with a box-cornice. At No. 24 the beam between the hall and the staircase compartment was supported by fluted pilasters, and at No. 23 a similar feature has been replaced by plain-shafted Ionic pilasters. The chimneypieces were of marble, entirely plain except for slight mouldings on the inner and outer edges. The staircases were similar in type, although those at Nos. 23 and 24 had very narrow wells while that at No. 27 was dog-legged. The first three flights had cut strings with carved step-ends, turned balusters and column newels, the newels being fluted at Nos. 24 and 27, while the upper flights had closed strings and a different type of baluster and column newel. At No. 24 the main staircase served only three storeys. The secondary staircase was a cramped dog-legged one with turned balusters on a closed string.

Nos. 36–40 form an almost uniform terrace (Plate 125c, fig. 17), each house three windows wide and containing a basement and four storeys, the topmost storey being almost certainly a later addition. As far as stuccoing and resurfacing permits a generalization, the fronts are of pale yellow stock brick with red brick jambs and flat gauged arches to the windows, the second storeys being finished with a bandcourse of red brick, the two upper courses of which have a slightly greater projection. Nos. 30 and 37 still retain their original doorways with moulded wooden architraves and cornices on carved consoles, while No. 38 has a mid or late eighteenth-century round-arched doorway between Doric columns, each carrying an entablature-block, and the whole finished with an open triangular pediment. No. 35 corresponds exactly to the other five houses except that its front has been stuccoed and remodelled, the bandcourse, if there ever was one, having disappeared. The interiors are arranged on the plan already described at No. 13. The original finishings have been badly mutilated and in the case of No. 36, which was partly destroyed by bombing, have entirely gone. In general the first two storeys have ovolo-moulded panelling, sometimes raised-and-fielded, finished with a box-cornice, and the third storey has plain rebated panelling; but some houses, No. 39 for example, have plain rebated panelling throughout the ground storey. The chimneypieces, where they survive, are plain marble ones with simple mouldings on the inner and outer edges. The beam between the hall and the staircase compartment is supported by fluted pilasters and the staircases are dog-legged, usually with cut strings, carved step-ends and column newels in the lower storeys and closed strings above, but sometimes with closed strings from top to bottom.

Nos. 1 and 41–43 are matching four-storeyed houses of yellow brick, Nos. 41–43 having been built in 1831 and let to Thomas Adams, upholsterer and cabinet-maker.113 No. 1 was probably built at the same time. Each has a return front two windows wide to Brewer Street, and a rounded and recessed angle, thus forming a uniform feature at the southern end of the street.

Nos. 2–3, which were erected in 1888–90 by Benjamin John Green, builder,114 comprise a four-storeyed warehouse building with a lavishly glazed front. The wide centre is set between narrower, slightly projecting wings, the latter being flanked by yellow brick pilasters.

No. 20 is a public house called the Sun and Thirteen Cantons, which has existed on this site since at least 1756.115 The present red brick building was erected in 1882 to the designs of Henry Cotton.116 Its main feature is a steep gable with a pointed window framed by a series of stepped orders in cut brick.

2. This ground, now occupied by the staff annexe of the Regent Palace Hotel, was re-acquired by the Crown from the Sutton estate in 1914
22. P.C.C., 66 Young.
23. Sutton deeds, box 1, bundle 3.
25. Sutton deeds, box 1, bundle 3; box 2, bundle 7.
26. M.L.R. 1719/3/169.
27. Ibid., 1717/2/4.
28. Ibid., 1719/4/54.
29. Ibid., 1719/3/39.
30. Ibid., 1720/1/32.
31. Ibid., 1719/5/179.
32. Ibid., 1729/6/135.
33. Ibid., 1719/1/185.
34. Ibid., 1725/6/447.
35. Ibid., 1719/1/138.
36. Ibid., 1719/3/40.
37. Ibid., 1719/4/48.
38. 7 Geo. I, House of Lords Act no. 34.
39. P.R.O., LR1/283, ff. 1–8.
40. Ibid., London lease book 38, pp. 292–314.
41. Ibid., file 15787.
111. L.C.C. Members' Library, file 1172.
112. Photographs in possession of the N.B.R. and the L.C.C.
113. Sutton deeds, particulars book, property nos. 348–9; P.O.D.
114. Sutton deeds, files, property nos. 398, 399 and part of 402.
115. M.C.R.O., LV(W) passim.
116. Sutton deeds, particulars book, property no. 370; The Builder, 11 March 1882, p. 301.