Monaco is one of a pair of houses built circa late 1830s, and is a fine example of a town house of its period with a high standard of Regency architectural design, craftsmanship, and use of materials and details. The house was built for Jean Bichard, who purchased the land from George Ingouville in January 1838. The house is arranged with a subservient ground floor with two principal upper storeys and an attic level. There are four bays with a slightly projecting entrance bay and a recessed bay to the outside. The walls are stucco with a rusticated ground floor and quoins. There is a bold cornice above which is a parapet masking a hipped slate roof. The ground floor is brought forward to carry a first floor balcony across three bays, incorporating a stone balustrade and Ionic portico. Within the portico is a pair of long-panelled doors with glazed transom light. A curving stone staircase with ironwork balustrade leads up from the front garden to the balcony. There are French windows at first floor level - the window to the outer bay opening onto a small decorative ironwork balcony. There are 12-pane sash windows at second floor level - the outer bay window distinguished by the addition of narrow margin lights. The rear of the house has large 16-pane sash windows looking onto a walled garden. The roof is hipped with dormers and a pair of chimneystacks - the central stack shared with the neighbouring house. The quality of the design, craftsmanship and use of materials continues to the interior of the house where the original layout substantially survives and there are many fine architectural features and fittings. The house is entered via a small vestibule, which is separated from the main hallway by a pair of mahogany doors with etched glass panels. At the centre of the house is a mahogany staircase with turned balusters and risers decorated with mahogany appliqué, that continues to attic level. The doorways leading off from the hallway each have moulded architrave and 4-panel doors with matching panelled lining. The two principal reception rooms, with a pair of panelled dividing doors between them, are notable for their deep skirting and cornice with grey marble fireplaces flanked by arched niches. The lower status rooms have more modest fittings such as timber fireplaces. At second floor level are the bedrooms - the principal room running across the front of the house and including 3-bays of windows with a grey marble fireplace and original joinery. The other rooms also retain their late 1830s fittings including timber fireplaces and integral cupboards. The house was once home to the Comte Narcisse-Achille de Salvandy, a French Royalist, politician and writer who lived here in exile after the 1848 Revolution. |