Survey Data
Reg No
50930002
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical
Previous Name
Smith’s Buildings
Original Use
House
In Use As
Office
Date
1825 - 1830
Coordinates
316327, 233234
Date Recorded
20/10/2015
Date Updated
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Description
Terraced two-bay four-storey former townhouse over basement, dated 1828, built as part of a terrace of five (50930001-5). Two-storey return over basement to rear (east) elevation. Now in commercial use as offices. M-profiled pitched roof, with shouldered rendered chimneystacks having lipped clay pots to party walls. Concealed gutters with hopper and downpipe breaking through to rear. Buff brick walling laid in Flemish bond over painted ruled-and-lined rendered basement with painted masonry plinth course over. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills, rendered reveals and brick voussoirs. Largely six-over-six timber sliding sash windows with horns, three-over-three to third floor and ten-over-ten to basement with steel grille. Decorative iron balconettes affixed to sills at first floor. Round-headed door opening with painted masonry doorcase case comprising moulded linings, prostyle Ionic columns on plinths with egg-and-dart moulding to capitals rising to moulded cornice over panelled frieze with decorative iron fanlight and raised-and-field timber panelled door. Granite entrance platform with cast-iron boot scraper, four nosed steps to street flanked by cast-iron railings with arrow finials on painted masonry plinth enclosing basement well to south. Square-headed plainly detailed door beneath entrance platform with glazed overlight and recent timber and glazed door. Basement well accessed by painted masonry steps from street level, flanked by painted masonry handrail and piers to entrance gate. Steel escape stair affixed to south bay of rear (east) elevation. Street fronted on the eastern side of Ely Place Upper. Plaque affixed to front elevation; ‘Writer/George Moore/Lived in this house/1901-1911.’
Appraisal
Ely Place Upper, which occupies the southern end of the street, comprises a terrace of five former townhouses originally named ‘Smith’s Buildings’, as engraved on a quoin of No. 1 (50930005). Characterised by well-balanced proportions, Adamesque doorcases and decorative fanlights, this former houses is part of a well maintained terrace. Originally named Hume Row, Ely Place was laid out in 1768, and was named after the surgeon Gustavus Hume who built his house at No. 1 Hume Street (now demolished). With the construction of Ely House (50930012) in 1770, Ely Place developed as a desirable residential street throughout the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. The writer George Moore lived here from 1901 to 1911