Little Deans Yard (College Of Westminster School)

Little Dean's Yard, also known as No 4 of the College of Westminster School, is a school dormitory built between 1722 and 1730 by Lord Burlington. The building suffered significant damage during World War II but was restored in 1947. It features a stone structure with a coppered roof and has a severe astylar design that incorporates restrained Palladian motifs. The long range of the building faces east onto Abbey Garden and originally consisted of two storeys, with a floor added to the upper storey in 1906. The building is 15 bays long and 3 bays deep, with the entrance and stair bay constructed in brick and adorned with stone dressings and quoins at the north end.

The entrance features a semicircular arched doorway flanked by stone pilasters that support archivolts, with panelled doors and a wrought iron fanlight grill. The main east front has an arcaded ground floor "piazza" supported by square piers, which was enclosed and fitted with windows in 1846. The upper part, serving as the dormitory, is lit by square architraved windows. Originally, the piano nobile level had blind niches with alternating segmental and triangular pediments, which were converted into windows by T.G. Jackson in 1895, following the insertion of an intermediate floor in 1906. A pseudo parapet is located below the niches, and the building is topped with an entablature featuring a modillion cornice and pulvinated frieze. This building was Burlington's first public project and represents a significant moment in his challenge against the empirical classicism of the Wren school.