The Skeel Library, Kings College is a Grade II listed building in the Camden local planning authority area, England. First listed on 16 January 1996. A C20 Library. 7 related planning applications.
The Skeel Library, Kings College
- WRENN ID
- lost-moulding-briar
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Camden
- Constituency
- Hampstead and Highgate MP: Tulip Siddiq (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 16 January 1996
- Type
- Library
- Address
- The Skeel Library, Kings College, Kidderpore Avenue, NW3 7SU
- OS grid reference
- TQ 253 858
- Coordinates
- 51.55737, -0.19287
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Skeel Library, part of King's College, was built in 1903-4 by Robert Falconer MacDonald. It is a red brick building with stone and brick detailing to the first floor and dressings, featuring a tiled hipped roof, tall brick chimney stacks, a segmental pedimented dormer, and a console-buttressed cupola, all in an Edwardian Baroque style.
The building is two storeys high with an attic, and has seven windows. A prominent two-storey canted bay dominates the central section, with brick buttresses at ground floor level forming pediments to the first floor. The ground floor windows are 18-pane sashes set within segmental brick surrounds. The first-floor windows are transom and mullion windows with small panes in ornate surrounds. A stone cornice with modillion and dentil details runs along the eaves.
The interior has fumed oak fittings and a gallery added in 1911. An archway provides access to the Maynard Wing and features herringbone brickwork panels and bands of stone. The library was constructed to enable Westfield College to become a teaching school of the University of London.
Local climate
The Skeel Library, Kings College 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 98% 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 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 66% of listed buildings. Of these, 13 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.
- Sale history — 4 transactions since 2018
- Related listed building consents — 7 applications
- 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
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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