Summary

Pair of town houses now part of King's College campus. 1767 with C20 internal alterations. Surviving vaults to the rear probably from the C17 mansion on the site. The late-C19 extension to the rear of No. 33 is not of special interest.

Description

MATERIALS: stock brick laid in Flemish bond, No 34 painted; slate roofs.

PLAN: two-room deep with closet wings, altered on upper floors by insertion of transverse connecting corridors. The basements connect to transverse brick vaults, dated by analysis of the brick to c1664-1700. The vaults at one time connected to the Roman Bath (at No. 5 Strand Lane). Evidence of the blocked doorway survives. One of the vaults contains a copper in the north-east corner. A late-C19 extension to the rear of No. 33, extending over the southern part of the vaults, is not included in the listing.

EXTERIOR: three storeys high above a basement with dormered mansard roofs behind a parapet and a central chimney stack. The front elevations are three bays wide with stepped entrances on the left-hand side. The doorcases have pilasters and consoles carrying entablatures with dentil cornices and fluted friezes; No. 34 having a round arch. The doors are recessed in panelled reveals; No. 33 with a rectangular fanlight, No. 34 with a semi-circular fanlight. Both buildings have recessed sash windows under flat gauged-brick arches. The upper-floor sashes of No. 34 retain their glazing bars. The first floors have a brick platband and the parapet has stone copings. The houses are fronted by cast-iron area railings with flaming urn finials.

INTERIOR: the houses are now linked with each other and the buildings on either side to form a continuance of Kings College. No. 33 retains its open-well stair with open strings, ramped handrail and turned balusters. The stair continues into the basement, with stick balusters and turned newel post, although it has been capped at attic level. The stair of No. 34 has been replaced. The hall of No. 34 has a pilastered arch and a bracketed cornice; No. 33 has plainer mouldings and retains wooden panelling beneath the stair. Other cornices survive in some of the rooms of both houses.

MAPPING NOTE: the subterranean vaults which are part of this listed building are not mapped.

History

Records in the King’s College London archives (KA/T/21/5/1) date the building of 33 and 34 Surrey Street to 1767, following a fire of 1765 that destroyed the mansion previously occupying the site. According to the St Clement Danes rate books this mansion was built in circa 1692-4 and was owned successively by the Fox, Vernon and Danvers families. Brick vaults presumed to be from the mansion survive connected to the basements of the C18 houses.

In the late C18 and early C19, No. 33 ran the operation of the 'Roman Bath' located directly to the west at No. 5 Strand Lane, and to which it was connected at basement level. According to street directories, from the 1850s both houses ceased to be occupied as private houses and had become lodging houses. In the 1890s they were in single ownership and had become a private hotel. By 1915 No. 33 had become the offices for the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission and by 1921 No. 34 was also subdivided into a number of separate offices. In the late 1950s/early 1960s the houses were acquired by Kings College and linked to adjoining buildings as part of the campus.

Reasons for Listing

Nos. 33 and 34 Surrey Street are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: a pair of terraced townhouses dating from 1767, retaining their doorcases and external ironwork; although more altered internally a number of features of interest survive, most notably the stair to No. 33;
* Historic interest: survival of vaults to the rear, providing evidence of the C17 mansion on the site;
* Group Value: with the 'Roman Bath' (at No. 5 Strand Lane), with which No. 33 has historical links.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27081604

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)