Africa House is a Grade II listed building in the Camden local planning authority area, England. First listed on 11 December 1996. Office block. 48 related planning applications.
Africa House
- WRENN ID
- quartered-landing-jackdaw
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Camden
- Constituency
- Holborn and St Pancras
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 11 December 1996
- Type
- Office block
- Address
- Africa House, 64-78, Kingsway, London, WC2B 6AH
- OS grid reference
- TQ 305 814
- Coordinates
- 51.51699, -0.11937
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Africa House is a large office block with shops on the ground floor, built between 1921 and 1922 by the architectural firm Trehearne and Norman. The building features a steel frame faced with Portland stone and stands six storeys tall, with an additional two-storey set-back attic. It has nine windows and a prominent double-height fluted Doric screen that flanks a round-arched entrance styled like a triumphal arch, which is inscribed with "Africa House" and topped with lions lying down.
The upper storeys are set back and include a central distyle-in-antis screen that rises from the third to the fifth floor. The windows on the fifth floor are metal-framed and feature Greek scroll aprons, with decorative elements above the bays that resemble pilasters. The building is topped with an entablature that has a deep mutule cornice and is surmounted by a pediment adorned with carved figures and animals. The plain attic storeys have a cornice and blocking course with a central antefixa. The design continues with a long screen at the return to Twyford Place. The interior has not been inspected.
Local climate
Africa House 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.
- Sale history — 3 transactions since 2015
- Related listed building consents — 48 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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