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Cleveland Street in Fitzrovia, London W1

Project Outline

We were commissioned by Fitzrovia Land Ltd, to undertake a Heritage Impact Assessment, which retrospectively addresses works comprising several minor interventions.

Our document set out the historic background of the site along with the potential for the significance of relevant heritage assets.

The property is a Grade II listed building designated in 1974.

Before the eighteenth century, the area was agricultural in emphasis. Located in the Manor of Tottenhall (i.e. Tottenham Court), the Domesday survey records this as coming under the ownership of the Canons of St. Paul’s Cathedral, following which, this was to be subject to a succession of further owners. The Restoration saw this given over to the Crown, before in 1667 being leased to the Earl of Arlington.

Townhouses were predominant, with frontages facing onto spacious streets and to the rear, mews or service streets. In 1745, Middlesex Hospital was established across two separate dwellings on Windmill Street but had by 1760 moved to Cleveland Street. By 1772, a concert room had been constructed on Tottenham Street and, by the late 1770s, a workhouse had also been built on Cleveland Street. This is now the Middlesex Hospital Annex.

The application site is not at this time developed. Greenwood’s map of 1810 shows no. 16 to have been constructed by this time however, along with nos. 18-22. This is still labelled Upper Newman Street and, by 1815, had become known as Norfolk Street. Although of a residential emphasis, nos. 16, 19, and 20 all have early nineteenth century shopfronts.

This reflects the area’s decline in status when it was to become less fashionable as its wealthier occupants moved west. As a result, larger, more grand dwellings were subdivided and rented. Large rooms made serviceable studios, and many artists therefore occupied the area. The area’s decline was to continue and the area then attracted not merely artists, but also, artisans and craftsmen. Furniture making was predominant amongst the trades there and associated shops began to be implemented across the ground floors of many dwellings. Goodge Street emerged as a fruit and vegetable market.

From 1900, Tottenham Court Road began to see larger, purpose-built outlets for furniture and other goods produced across the locale. In 1902, the Prince of Wales theatre was replaced by the Scala Theatre. The area was subject to heavy bombing over WWII, resulting in more generally larger scale development over the 1950s-60s.

The variety of uses etc. experienced by no. 16 itself has resulted in numerous, associated changes to the property. Original features and/or detailing have been largely (if not entirely) superseded to adapt to later uses departing from the original residential emphasis of the property. Fenestration has been universally replaced and/or extensively refurbished, and no details such as original cornices, dados or skirtings remain. In 2014, floors are noted to have also been extensively repaired and other features such as fireplaces, removed or entirely obscured.

We were commissioned by Fitzrovia Land Ltd, to undertake a Heritage Impact Assessment, which retrospectively addresses works comprising several minor interventions.

Our document set out the historic background of the site along with the potential for the significance of relevant heritage assets.

The property is a Grade II listed building designated in 1974.

Before the eighteenth century, the area was agricultural in emphasis. Located in the Manor of Tottenhall (i.e. Tottenham Court), the Domesday survey records this as coming under the ownership of the Canons of St. Paul’s Cathedral, following which, this was to be subject to a succession of further owners. The Restoration saw this given over to the Crown, before in 1667 being leased to the Earl of Arlington.

Townhouses were predominant, with frontages facing onto spacious streets and to the rear, mews or service streets. In 1745, Middlesex Hospital was established across two separate dwellings on Windmill Street but had by 1760 moved to Cleveland Street. By 1772, a concert room had been constructed on Tottenham Street and, by the late 1770s, a workhouse had also been built on Cleveland Street. This is now the Middlesex Hospital Annex.

The application site is not at this time developed. Greenwood’s map of 1810 shows no. 16 to have been constructed by this time however, along with nos. 18-22. This is still labelled Upper Newman Street and, by 1815, had become known as Norfolk Street. Although of a residential emphasis, nos. 16, 19, and 20 all have early nineteenth century shopfronts.

This reflects the area’s decline in status when it was to become less fashionable as its wealthier occupants moved west. As a result, larger, more grand dwellings were subdivided and rented. Large rooms made serviceable studios, and many artists therefore occupied the area. The area’s decline was to continue and the area then attracted not merely artists, but also, artisans and craftsmen. Furniture making was predominant amongst the trades there and associated shops began to be implemented across the ground floors of many dwellings. Goodge Street emerged as a fruit and vegetable market.

From 1900, Tottenham Court Road began to see larger, purpose-built outlets for furniture and other goods produced across the locale. In 1902, the Prince of Wales theatre was replaced by the Scala Theatre. The area was subject to heavy bombing over WWII, resulting in more generally larger scale development over the 1950s-60s.

The variety of uses etc. experienced by no. 16 itself has resulted in numerous, associated changes to the property. Original features and/or detailing have been largely (if not entirely) superseded to adapt to later uses departing from the original residential emphasis of the property. Fenestration has been universally replaced and/or extensively refurbished, and no details such as original cornices, dados or skirtings remain. In 2014, floors are noted to have also been extensively repaired and other features such as fireplaces, removed or entirely obscured.

Reference:
J004764