Description

249/0/10282

PHENE STREET
Tudor Wall to rear of 1-7

05-NOV-07

GV
II
Brick boundary wall, early C16, rebuilt in the C18 or C19 and in smaller patches in recent years, and possibly with areas of a later second skin on the north side.

DESCRIPTION: The brick wall runs in a straight, roughly east-west line for around 38 metres in length. Only the south face was inspected (2007) and although much of the wall was obscured by foliage, sections of brickwork are visible. The bonding patterns are irregular with some rows of headers and others of stretchers. The wall is likely to have been rebuilt in the C18 or C19 and some of the bricks replaced; these may be the blue bricks that are interspersed with the smaller red bricks. The C19 also saw the application of black-ash mortar to sections of the wall. Some of the capping and some sections of the upper courses appear to have been rebuilt in the late C20 and a section in the garden of 43 Oakley Street is entirely early C21 brickwork. There has been insensitive repointing in cement mortar on some sections of the wall. Nonetheless, a significant proportion of C16 bricks survive and there are good stretches of the wall where the brickwork has been largely unaltered since the C18 or early-C19. At its westernmost point the wall abuts the mid-Victorian houses on Oakley Street. At its easternmost point, the wall is tied into the listed north-south former orchard boundary wall. The two walls, although of different heights, are likely to be roughly contemporary as the course they follow is a long-standing boundary. The north-south wall is currently described in the list description as a part of the boundary walls of the manor of Henry VIII. While this is certainly true of its adjoining sections (running to the west and then continuing south), this northernmost section appears to be the boundary to the long orchard and is historically connected to Shrewsbury House.

The north face was not inspected but is known to have been rendered at 1 Phene Street, and there are suggestions the wall might have been buttressed by a later wall on the north side.

HISTORY: The wall marked the boundary of a long rectangular orchard, stretching west to east, which was part of the garden of Shrewsbury House, a early C16 building on the riverside. The orchard was bisected by Oakley Street in the mid-C19, but the distinctive plot shape can still be identified on modern maps to either side of the street; its western section is now the site of Adair House. The boundary wall can be traced on a number of historic maps of the area including James Hamilton's 'Parish of Chelsea' of 1664, the 1706 water supply map of Chelsea, Christopher and John Greenwood's map of London of 1830, Thompson's map of 1836, Edward Standford's 'London and its Suburbs' of 1862 and the Ordnance Survey maps of 1874, 1896 and 1916.

Shrewsbury House is first recorded in the early-mid C16 when it was owned by George, Earl of Shrewsbury, a Privy Councillor to Henry VIII. It is likely that Shrewsbury built or adapted the house after Henry VIII refitted an older manor house on the riverside at Chelsea, on the site of which is now 19-26 Cheyne Walk in 1536. Henry VIII also channelled water via a conduit from Kensington Palace Green to the manor house and a fountain in the Great Garden to the west. The 1703 map which depicts this system shows the pipes reaching the site at what may be a conduit house in the northern stretch of the Shrewsbury House orchard boundary wall and continuing south through the orchard to the manor house. Shrewsbury House was later the home of a Sir Joseph Alston. In the 1706 water supply map the land bounded by the wall is labelled 'Sir Joseph Alston's Orchard', connecting the plot with Shrewsbury House, rather than Henry VIII's manor. The House was used as a paper manufactory by 1792 and was demolished in 1813.

Other remnants of the wall of Shrewsbury House garden are recorded as surviving in the Alfred Beaver's 'Memorials of Old Chelsea' of 1892. He describes Carlyle as observing sections of Tudor wall in his garden and also mentions a further section in the grounds of what is now Adair House. Several of these stretches survive and are listed Grade II.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: The boundary wall is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons
* a significant proportion of this important boundary wall survives, including a large number of Tudor bricks and some infill of the late C18 or early-C19; the north face was not inspected but is known to have been rendered, and perhaps buttressed, in parts;
* the wall has special historic interest as a surviving structure relating to Shrewsbury House, one of the great houses that once lined the riverside at Chelsea in the C16;
* its claim to antiquity is supported by strong documentary evidence, including a number of historic maps. The wall testifies to the persistence of the plot boundary it marks which is still clearly identifiable on modern maps despite its bisection by Oakley Street;
* it has group value with other listed walls nearby forming a remarkable collection of interrelated brick boundary walls.

Reasons for Listing

The boundary wall is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* a significant proportion of this important boundary wall survives, including a large number of Tudor bricks and some infill of the late C18 or early-C19; the north face was not inspected but is known to have been rendered, and perhaps buttressed, in parts;
* the wall has special historic interest as a surviving structure relating to Shrewsbury House, one of the great houses that once lined the riverside at Chelsea in the C16;
* its claim to antiquity is supported by strong documentary evidence, including a number of historic maps. The wall testifies to the persistence of the plot boundary it marks which is still clearly identifiable on modern maps despite its bisection by Oakley Street;
* it has group value with other listed walls nearby forming a remarkable collection of interrelated brick boundary walls.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27087153

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

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)