Young Georgians
visit
The House of Saint Barnabas
and
68 Dean Street
and Cess Pits...
The House of St Barnabas, or 1 Greek Street, is arguably Soho's finest house and contains one of London's great Rococo Georgian interiors and is a grand reminder that Soho was once the habitat of haute fashion Eighteenth century London.
The famous interior of 1 Greek Street was rebuilt by the Beckford family in 1754.
The staircase and Soho Rooms have particularly fine plasterwork and, in the latter, door surrounds.
It is wonderful seeing a Georgian building still evolving in such a way and those in responsible for it cherishing this amazing architectural legacy.
Rococo meets The Hobbit!
The house of St Barnabas has even hosted such modern luminaries as Girls Aloud, seen here in their heyday
1 Greek Street has been an important hub for the homeless community since the mid Nineteenth Century, when the amazing chapel was built at the rear by Joseph Clarke FRIBA. The Chapel is a wonderfully untouched Victorian building the organ looks pretty original too!!
The organ in the Chapel at the House of St Barnabas
Next stop for the Young Georgians was a stone's throw away at 68 Dean Street. We had to make a brief stop to see the amazing newly restored rococo shopfront at 88 Dean Street, a labour of love for for young newsagent owner Romil Patel. It was restored by local craftsmen and is a most precious survival of what was once a whole array of marvellous Georgian shop fronts.
88 Dean Street
David Bieda has restored and revived 68 Dean Street, one of the great surviving examples of early Georgian domestic architecture in London. The house was rebuilt by John Meard Junior, one of the top carpenters of his generation, in 1732. He was Master of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters and worked with Sir Christopher Wren on the woodcarvings at St Paul's Cathedral and various London churches.
The house is like a Georgian skyscraper at six storeys and contains an extremely rare survival of an early Georgian servant's floor and two marvellous cesspits, one grand for the family and another rather dank one for the staff...the smell of Georgian London is almost tangible!
The smart cesspit
The dank cesspit
The Drawing Room on the piano nobile of 68 Dean Street
Soho still contains such a wealth of Georgian architecture and that, bottled with the area's lively character, helps to conjure up the period better than nearly anywhere else in London.
For information on 68 Dean Street please see:-
http://www.sixty8.com/index.html
and The Young Georgians:-
nice
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