Nos. 1-12 Scroope Terrace, the 1959 rear extension to no. 1 Scroope Terrace and the railings to the front.

Nos. 1-12 Scroope Terrace is a three-storey terrace of seven former dwellings with attic and semi-basement, built in the 19th century and constructed of gault brick with plaster dressings and slated roofs. The building is symmetrical and rectangular in plan, with each dwelling comprising three window bays and an off-centre entrance door. The two dwellings at each end break forward and feature single-storey, flat-roofed entrance porches.

The front façade is uniform in treatment. The roofs are slate-covered, gabled and hipped, hidden behind a front parapet with gault brick ridge stacks. The ground floor has rusticated render, and the second floor is marked by a rendered band below a moulded cornice. The entrance doors are four-panelled with square heads and fanlights. The windows throughout are six-over-six vertical sashes with deeply moulded surrounds; all first-floor windows have iron balconies, with those at the end and centre ranges also having deeply moulded architraves.

The rear elevation of the terrace is varied in form. Nos. 6-12 (formerly the Royal Cambridge Hotel as of September 2012) generally feature dormer windows to the attic and six-over-six vertical sashes with segmented brick heads. Projecting at the centre of the terrace is a flat-roofed, rendered, single-storey 20th-century addition serving as the rear entrance from the car park. The rear elevation of nos. 1-5 (Cambridge University as of September 2012) is eclectic, with mid to late-19th-century rear wings and 20th and 21st-century educational facilities.

To the rear of no. 1 Scroope Terrace is a brick, square extension designed by Colin St John Wilson and Alex Hardy in 1959. The extension consists of a small cube of two floors with brick elevations supporting a concrete slab first floor and a flat concrete-beam roof fitted with an original mechanical rotating louvre system to permit the entry of light from the roof. The building has a plan area of 36 by 36 feet on a grid layout of 9-foot squares and is linked to the adjoining two-storey main building by a timber and glass stair tower. Horizontal and vertical bands of fenestration punctuate the elevations. The extension is built of reclaimed Cambridge stock brick and concrete.

Interior features of the 19th-century phases include retained fireplaces, staircases and decorative plasterwork. Within the 1959 extension, both levels are accessed from the rear wing of no. 1 Scroope Terrace by concrete, dog-leg stairs of three flights with simple timber handrails. Both floors are organised around a central, brick-built core of services. The first floor contains an exhibition space and lecture theatre, both rooms with large centre pivot doors allowing adjoining spaces to be opened up and combined. The ground floor contains the staff common room and a suite of four offices, approached by three downward steps.

The finishes throughout the extension comprise brick, concrete, oiled timber or veneered plywood. Concrete beams with original lighting form the ceiling of the first-floor spaces, whilst the staff room and offices have timber-clad ceilings and brick floors. Plain concrete shelves appear on both floors, and the ground-floor offices contain contemporary fitted wooden benches, cupboards and angle-poise lamps. The lecture theatre has a concrete mounting for the projector, a timber podium, pinboards, ventilation grilles and contemporary free-standing furniture.

The 19th-century iron railings on a dwarf-brick wall to the front of the terrace are subsidiary features contributing to the special interest of the terrace.

A 2005 extension to the rear of no. 3 Scroope Terrace was too recent to be included with the listing as of 2013.