Voluntary Missionary Movement is a Grade II listed building in the St Albans local planning authority area, England. First listed on 29 January 1985. Training centre.

Voluntary Missionary Movement

WRENN ID
hushed-ember-weasel
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
St Albans
Constituency
St Albans MP: Daisy Cooper (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
29 January 1985
Type
Training centre
Address
Voluntary Missionary Movement, Shenley Lane, London Colney
OS grid reference
TL 174 029
Coordinates
51.7129, -0.30089
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Voluntary Missionary Movement is a training centre built around 1927, likely designed by Sir Ninian Comper as an extension to the All Saints Pastoral Centre. The building is constructed of purple brick with red brick and stone dressings, topped with a machine tile roof. It has a T-shaped layout and features a symmetrical east elevation in a Neo-Georgian style, rising to 2-3 storeys.

The front facade consists of 11 windows, with slightly projecting gable ends that have banded brick quoins. There are single pilaster-quoins set two windows in from each gable, creating a five-part elevation. The central section displays five first-floor casement roundels, while the ground floor features a shallow blank arcade. A central recessed door is flanked by glazing bar casements and is sheltered by an inset cemented porch supported by Tuscan columns and topped with a moulded entablature. The intermediate bays have sash windows on the ground floor and casements above, and the gable ends are adorned with sashes in moulded round-arched frames on the upper floor.

Atop the central ridge, there is a square wooden belfry tower with an ogee copper hood and a weathervane. The north end elevation has a 1:2:1 window arrangement with banded quoins, while the south end features a single-storey loggia that connects with the All Saints Pastoral Centre.

Local climate

Voluntary Missionary Movement sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 89% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 87% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 31 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 61% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • No related consent applications matched
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. All Saints Pastoral Centre, Including Chapel Grade II* 114 m
  2. London coal duty marker on east side of Broad Colney Bridge Grade II 284 m
  3. London Coal Duty Marker on Verge Near Number 67 Grade II 641 m
  4. London Coal Duty Marker on North Side of Road, Near Drive to Alfriston Grade II 682 m
  5. The Green Dragon Public House Grade II 975 m
  6. 29, High Street Grade II 1.0 km
  7. 27, High Street Grade II 1.0 km
  8. 31 and 33, High Street Grade II 1.0 km
  9. London coal duty marker on south side of road near Telford's Bridge Grade II 1.0 km
  10. Waterside House Grade II 1.0 km