Description

788/10/202 VICTORIA PARK SQUARE E2
18-JUL-49 (East side)
17-18

(Formerly listed as:
VICTORIA PARK SQUARE E2
16-18)

GV II*
Pair of houses, now offices (2003). c.1690 with early-C19 alterations and C20 additions. Stock brick with red brick dressings; brick string course at 1st floor level; rendered basement. Tiled roof with wooden modillion eaves cornice and early-C19 dormers. 2 storeys with attic and basement.
EXTERIOR: Each house 5 windows wide; C19 sash windows, recessed and with red brick flat arches and dressings. Entrance doorways have moulded architraves flanked by pilasters with carved and scrolled brackets supporting flat hood with panelled soffits. Entrance steps to No.17 flanked by stone balusters; those to No.18 have late-C18/early-C19 ironwork. Ground floor windows of No. 17 have C19 cast-iron windows guards. No.17 has C19 and C20 additions to rear and C20 2-storey extension at northwest corner. No.18 rear wall re-built and raised with parapet in C19.
INTERIOR: Nos. 17 and 18 have original interior fittings including full-height staircases with 'barley sugar' turned balusters, heavy moulded ramped handrails and square newels with ball terminals, open string stair flights with carved tread-ends up to second floor, and closed string above. Staircase dado panelling. Full height panelled rooms to ground and first floor of both houses, small areas replaced in late-C20; some panelling with bolection mouldings, some square-framed. Wooden box cornices. No. 18 has several first floor chimneypieces with deep wooden surrounds and elaborate overmantels with diamond and 'fish scale' motifs. No. 17 has several early-C19 wooden and wide marble fireplaces. Rear basement room of No.18 has brick-lined well.
HISTORY: Nos. 17 and 18 appear to be the 'two adjoining tenements with orchard and garden' referred to in the 1690 abstracts of admittance for Stepney. First owned by James Grunwin, the property was bequeathed to Thomas Vickars and William Barwell in 1701, the garden behind enclosed with a wall and sold to Joseph Blissott who owned another property in Bethnal Green. The property was let to a succession of tenants throughout the C18, remaining relatively unchanged in footprint until the later-C19. In 1887, No.17 was used as by the University Club, an Anglican settlement that had been founded in Bethnal Green by theology graduates from Oxford. It is then that the first building, a clubhouse for the Settlement, was constructed on the the site of No.16 (q.v.). Nos. 16-18 were formerly listed as one item, with No.16 considered to be a much altered c.1690 house.
SOURCES: Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, 'London East' (1930) p.9.
English Heritage Historians file Tower Hamlets 85.

A pair of c.1690 houses that retain their 5-bay brick facades, full-height staircases with 'barley sugar' turned balusters, panelled rooms and chimneypieces, and that have a layer of C19 interest; listed at Grade II* for their outstanding interest as rare survivals of pre-Georgian houses in East London.

Listing NGR: TQ3513482882

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17531777

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

• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)