Cecil Sharp House

Cecil Sharp House, located on Regent’s Park Road in Camden, is the headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Constructed between 1929 and 1930 by HM Fletcher for the English Folk Dance Society, the building was partly rebuilt between 1949 and 1951 following war damage. It is built of brown brick with a tiled, hipped roof and is designed in a Neo-Georgian style, set on a triangular corner site.

The exterior is two storeys high, with a basement, and features a five-bay front facade. It incorporates square-headed stone-architraved doorways with wooden panelled doors at each end, accessed by steps with cast-iron railings. Tall, metal framed windows with margin glazing and small panes are set within gauged brick flat arches, and notably articulate the double-height dance hall. Pilaster strips accent the angles, continuing through the parapet, which is distinguished by a brick band and stone ball finials.

The interior of the dance hall, a result of post-war rebuilding, contains a large, specially commissioned mural painting by Ivon Hitchens, approximately 20 metres in length. This mural is of both historic and artistic significance. The lower portions of the hall's walls are wood panelled to window height.

Cecil Sharp, a key figure in the English folk music revival, collected, edited, performed, and wrote about English folk songs and dances. He founded the English Folk Dance Society in 1911 and, following a merger in 1932, the building houses Sharp's library, which he bequeathed upon his death in 1924.