HUGIJENOT ARTISTS DESIGNERS AND CRAYPSNEN IN GREAT ...

117.
that the owner chould'make use in his intended Buildings of the said
citties workemen'. Dubois pointed out that this was hard as 'he was by
profession a Builder or an Architect himself and knew how to choose his
own workment1 and Dubois was assured that the performance of such
co'-enants was not always strictly required. However, the city
authorities later complained that they were never fully' paid for the
property. By August 1720, Dubois had mbarked on another project as
he had 'undertaken to build svl large houses for several persons of
quality upon new foundations near hide park' and Bridgewater felt
conml4 "i ,it would not have leisure tr attend to the compa11vs
matters as he ought1Bridgewater therefore recommended that the
property at Petty France should be sold, partly as a result of the
economic climate as it 'would not make that advantage of the sd
purchase which he had before found to himself by Reson of the Great fall
of stocks, and the Great Decay of public Credit 1720 was the year
the South Sea Bubble burst.
Bridgewater, Egerton, Lewis Dolon and Anthony Vezian defended
Dubois' Bill of Complaint, and all parties were acquitted from
performing the agreement. The meetinga of the company had taken place
in Nicholas Dubois' house on the south side of Brewer Street, which
Dubois had built himself, between December 1718 and May 1719. This
house later became the only concert room of note in the West End during
the 17fO's and 1750's run by John Hickford, and it was here on May 13th,
1765 that Mozart aged nine gave his famous recital. I is possible
that Dubois had built the large room at the back of the house which ttas
used for this purpose.
Dubois was also involved in country houses, and his best known
and most successful scheme was the circular and self-supporting stair-
case that he designed for the 1st Earl of Stanhope at Chevening, Kent.
A manuscript note amongst the Stanhope papers, probably in the hand of
the second Lady Stanhope suugests that this staircase was based on the
staircase Dubois built in his own house at Brewer Street
Nicholas Dubois also provided designs for Stanmer Park, Sussex,
the seat of Henry Pelham, a cousin of the Duke of Newcastle. The
property was acquired in 1721, and the total cost of rebuilding came
to £lk,200. Dubois also acted as Surveyor and was therefore paid at