Royal College of Nursing is a Grade II listed building in the Westminster local planning authority area, England. First listed on 5 May 1958. Town house. 14 related planning applications.
Royal College of Nursing
- WRENN ID
- lunar-keystone-indigo
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Westminster
- Constituency
- Cities of London and Westminster MP: Rachel Blake (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 5 May 1958
- Type
- Town house
- Address
- Royal College of Nursing, 20, Cavendish Square W1, City of Westminster, W1G 0RN
- OS grid reference
- TQ 287 813
- Coordinates
- 51.51606, -0.14585
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Royal College of Nursing is a substantial town house built in 1729. In 1930, it was refronted and incorporated into a redevelopment of the corner site by Sir Edwin Cooper, which included Henrietta Place. The building has five storeys, a basement, and dormers in the attic, all faced with classical Portland stone. It features five windows and a rusticated ashlar central enclosed porch.
Inside, the original structure retains fielded panelled rooms with carved marble chimneypieces on the ground, first, and second floors. There is a cut string staircase with a wrought iron balustrade, and the stairwell and its ceiling are painted in trompe l'oeil, likely by artists including John Devoto and Sir James Thornhill. The building was once the residence of H. H. Asquith, and there is a Greater London Council plaque commemorating this. It is one of the earliest houses in Cavendish Square.
Local climate
Royal College of Nursing 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.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 14 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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