Knightsbridge Living
Pont Street
This road runs between Sloane Street and Walton Street. It is a particularly wide and grand road consisting mainly of five storey red brick mansion blocks. At the eastern section on the north side there is a particularly imposing building with carving of unicorns on the roof. Part of the southern section of the street is tree lined with the buildings set well back from the main road. The western section of the road is dominated by the dramatic church of St. Columba’s.
Smith's Charity's portion of Pont Street is at the Lennox Gardens end of the street. There are houses on either side of the street. Nos. 42 to 58 on the north side were designed by J J Stevenson. They consist of four main stories, plus a basement and an attic in the mansard roof. The main entrances are surrounded by floor brick porches with classical columns and pediments wittily imitated in brick. First floors rooms and windows are exceptionally tall. Cantilevered balconies with railings run the length of the properties are first floor level and there are canted bays at ground, first and, in a couple of cases, second floor level. There are panels, similar to those you would find in Georgian doors, above the windows as a decorative effect. In addition some houses have elaborate terracotta friezes or brick pilasters with Corinthian capitals at second and third floor levels, or terracotta strings of flowers above or beside the windows at third floor. The gables are all different.
The terrace of Nos. 55 to 65 Pont Street make up the Charity's holding on the other side of the street. There seem to have been two architects. Nos. 47 to 51 are very grand. There are four main floors, then an extra floor in the bottom of the gable and apparently a small room above that in the top of the gable. There is also a basement. At all floors the windows are surrounded by heavy cream-painted stonework. The main entrances are framed by paired porches with stone balconies and balustrades at first floor level onto which French windows open. The balconies are supported by ornate brackets with bare-breasted women, like the prow of a ship. Next to the doors there are canted bow windows at ground and first floor level (but not basement). The first floor balcony is built between the bays of adjoining houses and the French windows opening onto them are flush with the main façade as are the windows in all the floors above.
Nos. 55 to 65 Pont Street are rather less ornate. They lack bow windows. The paired porches extend the depth of the area to the street. At first floor level there is a balcony with a stone balustrade which sits on top of the porches but also runs along the rest of the façade where it is cantilevered on curved brackets. It is wide enough for window boxes in front of the ordinary windows. Each storey has two large windows with a narrow one in the middle. At first floor level, the windows have shallow arched heads of brick with an elaborate keystone, but at either end the arch is shaped into an Aladdin’s Palace-type dome. Above is a white stucco frieze containing a simple overlapping arch pattern. The gables are distinctly Gothic and shaped like the entrance porch of a church.
