Mary Ward Centre and Attached Railings is a Grade II listed building in the Camden local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 May 1974. School. 1 related planning application.

Mary Ward Centre and Attached Railings

WRENN ID
ruined-courtyard-mist
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Camden
Constituency
Holborn and St Pancras
Country
England
Date first listed
14 May 1974
Type
School
Address
Mary Ward Centre and Attached Railings, 9, Tavistock Place, WC1H 9SN
OS grid reference
TQ 300 823
Coordinates
51.52532, -0.12693
Source
Historic England listing

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

Description

The Mary Ward Centre, originally a school for handicapped children and now a social centre, was built around 1903 by architects Arnold Dunbar Smith and Cecil Brewer for the Passmore Edwards Settlement, later known as the Mary Ward Settlement. The building is constructed of red brick and features a slated, hipped roof with dormers, following a rectangular plan with projecting wings on the main east facade, which faces a courtyard.

The exterior consists of two storeys and attics, with a total of eleven windows. There is a single storey entrance extension on Tavistock Place. The entrance facade has a slightly projecting bay with a bracketed hood above two-leaf doors. Above the hood is a lunette featuring a brick relief keystone and radiating strips. The bay is flanked by narrow, vertically set flush sashes with exposed boxing and brick sills. A stone-capped parapet sits above, from which the top storey of the school is set back, featuring three similar sashes under a modillion cornice.

The east facade of the school is symmetrical, with a central, slightly projecting brick porch that has a plain bracketed canopy over a recessed doorway. Above the canopy is a fanlight with radiating brick relief strips. The flush sashes have gauged brick flat arches and exposed boxing. Beneath the central sash on each wing, there are wooden doors with glazing bars that reach the level of the flanking windows' sills. A projecting stone modillion cornice enhances the design. The central dormer features a Palladian window type with the date 1903 displayed on an enriched, blind centre panel. The entrance extension includes two sashes and a stone-capped parapet, along with decorated lead rainwater heads.

The property also features attached cast-iron area railings, which consist of rectangular bars set diagonally with splayed tops and posts that are bent and riveted to form an arch.

Local climate

Mary Ward Centre and Attached Railings sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 98% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 35 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 57% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 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

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  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
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  • Related listed building consents — 1 application
  • 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
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