3-021-521 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Grosvenor Mansions, Victoria-Street, Westminster, [London], 1868. View of an early block of flats. 'The peculiarity of the interior is that the greater part of it, all above the mezzanine floor, is laid out in flats, after the Paris fashion, each flat containing all the requisite accomodation of a house, but on the same level. There are four flats on each of the floors, with one grand central hall and staircase, and a subsidiary one at the side street giving access to each of the tenements. There is also a separate central staircase for tradesmen and servants, and a lift from the basement to the top of the building (seven stories high) for provisions, coals, and other heavy things. Some of the tenements, of which there are twenty-six in the whole building, are let, we understand, for upwards of £300 per annum...The large amount of money spent upon the building of the Grosvenor Mansions has been laid out by the contractor for the work, Mr. M. Parsons, under the superintendence of the architect to the company, Mr. H. S. Legg... There can be little doubt that this will now become one of the most important thoroughfares in the metropolis'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.