4: 33 and 33a Dean Street
Forty years after the Great Fire of London, Londoners were still a bit jumpy and some of them started freaking out about the overhanging wooden eaves that had once again become all the rage. To get rid of this rampant fire hazard a Building Act was passed in 1707 which insisted that roofs should be hidden behind an 18-inch parapet wall with a cornice of either brick or stone.
Rather than being grumpy about the new law, which could have imposed on their artistic architectural flair, the Georgians decided to roll with it and remarked how the appearance of a flat roof totally fitted in with their love of classical proportions and reminded them of the rooflines of ancient temples (have we mentioned how much they loved temples?).
Parapets surrounding roofs are now common in Central London, and Georgian architecture often favoured the symmetry of paired chimneys on each end of the house. This allowed for fireplaces in almost every room and made for a toasty house in winter.
