Carlyle Building At The Hortensia Road Centre

The Carlyle Building, formerly Carlyle School, was constructed around 1914, with alterations in 1937. The architect remains unknown. It is built of red brick with extensive Portland stone dressings, covered by a slate roof, and features a bronze-capped cupola. The architectural style is English Baroque.

The building has a rectangular plan, organised around a central hall, a spine corridor, and projecting wings facing the street, with a large extension to the south. The central section has three bays and a single-story ground floor projection. It features arched windows with stone surrounds on the first floor, the central one topped with a pediment. Round windows sit above the rectangular windows between the arched openings. An eaves cornice runs along the top. The projecting wings have channelled rustication to the angle quoins and open pedimented gable ends. The first floor incorporates Venetian windows above triple windows on the ground floor. Tall chimney stacks are positioned at the angles of the entrance front. The roof is shallowly hipped, topped by a decorative octagonal cupola with a finial. The north and south elevations contain 12/12-pane windows on both the ground and first floor levels; some first-floor windows have arched heads and attic surrounds. A large gymnasium extension, added in 1937, projects to the south, constructed in three storeys and featuring a Wren-influenced style, with an LCC cartouche above the doorway.

The interior includes a top-glazed entrance lobby and a barrel-vaulted, double-height assembly hall with Mannerist-inspired plaster mouldings. Classrooms are located off the spine corridor and feature internal glazing. Tile-lined stairs are positioned at either end of the corridor. The first floor was converted for studio use by the English National Ballet School around 1995.

Additional features include lantern-capped brick and stone gate piers with wrought iron gates at the entrance.

Following World War One, the building was used as a hospital, later becoming a grammar school. It was extended in 1937, and the school moved to Pimlico in 1969. It subsequently operated as a nursery in 1971 and then formed part of the Kensington and Chelsea College. The building represents a high-quality example of an English Renaissance school, forming part of a group of imposing educational buildings; the 1937 extension is considered of lesser significance.