Henrietta Street Conservation Plan - The Heritage Council

Fig.5.3.19 No.11, elevation, photo taken prior
to commencement of current conservation
work, from HARP/DCT Inventory
Fig.5.3.18
King’s Inns Library, interior
Fig.5.3.20
No.11, staircase
coats-of-arms of former benchers. Sensitive refurbishment
works which were carried-out in some of the ground floor
rooms in 1997, uncovered fragments of important early and
mid-19th-century wallpaper. The second of these, a fauxbois
paper imitating an oak wood, included hand-pasted
capitals and bases which simulated pilasters. This paper
remained intact beneath layers of later paintwork but has
been completely restored to its original state. (McCarthy
Country Life, 2006)
No. 11 (fig.5.3.19)
Built before 1733, as a pair with No. 12, the elevation
of No. 11 is of particular historic importance. It retains
much of the original decorative scheme designed by
the architect Edward Lovett Pearce which is partially
documented by a pair of surviving drawings annotated by
the architect (Colvin & Craig, 1964). That these drawings,
of a pair of windows with rusticated architraves and a
(tri-partite) Venetian doorway, relate to the surviving
windows and part of a tripartite door on No. 11, has
been convincingly argued by Cathal Crimmins (Crimmins
1987). Handwritten notes by the architect on the drawings
refer to “Mr Gardiners 2 new houses – from ye primates
wall – ye 1st house in ye Clear 34-6”. This appears to
refer to a measurement of the front façade of the first
house, one of a pair built by Luke Gardiner, which were
adjacent to the primate’s house to the west. Three and a
half bays, and four storeys over basement, red brick with
heavy-handed 20th-century tuck pointing, the façade is
horizontally articulated by granite bands between storeys
and a continuous sill course on the first floor. The third floor
seems to have been a later addition to what was originally
a three storey over basement façade with dormers on the
roof, as in No. 9 across the street.
Much of the interior of the house, and some elements of
the façade, were altered when the pair of houses was
amalgamated into one by the 2nd Earl of Shannon in 1780,
and again when the houses were separated in 1807. The
pillared doorway and the iron work to the front of the house
date to the early-19th-century. The house retains its original
staircase of cantilevered Portland stone, and the stair hall
with its timber raised and fielded panelling (see fig.5.3.20).
Neo-classical medallions were inserted over the door
heads during the 1780s separation of the two houses. The
secondary staircase with its stone treads has also survived.
Generally the ground floor decoration belongs to the mid-
18th-century, and this includes a fine rococo ceiling in the
rear reception room. The decoration on the first floor is
mainly early 19th century with some surviving 18th-century
timber joinery.
No. 12 (fig.5.3.21)
Although part of a pair with No. 11, designed by Edward
Lovett Pearce, the façade and interior of this house bares
little resemblance to the original early 1730s house.
Between 1780 and 1807 the house was in the possession
of Richard 2nd Earl of Shannon, who amalgamated the two
houses, Nos. 11 & 12. In so doing he virtually demolished
No. 12, leaving only the main structure of the front wall
and the spine walls between, but removing and re-building
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