74, St James Street SW1 is a Grade II* listed building in the Westminster local planning authority area, England. First listed on 6 May 1969. Club. 3 related planning applications.
74, St James Street SW1
- WRENN ID
- upper-banister-thunder
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Westminster
- Constituency
- Cities of London and Westminster MP: Rachel Blake (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 6 May 1969
- Type
- Club
- Address
- 74, St James Street SW1, City of Westminster, SW1A 1PL
- OS grid reference
- TQ 292 801
- Coordinates
- 51.50552, -0.13863
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
No. 74 St James Street is a former gentlemen's club built between 1843 and 1845 by architects George Basevi and Sidney Smirke for the Conservative Club. The building is constructed of Portland stone with a slate roof and features a Palladian style with more relaxed detailing typical of the 1840s.
It stands three storeys high with a basement and is seven bays wide. The ground floor has a rusticated podium, with the end bays featuring a Tuscan porch on the right and a corresponding canted bay on the left, with recessed glazing bar sash windows in between. The upper floors are articulated by a giant order of Corinthian columns in the central five bays, while the end bays are treated as pilastered pavilions. These frame Venetian windows with Corinthian column dividers and pedimented windows in the central five bays, also with glazing bar sashes. A stone balustrade runs along the first floor above the porches, and the giant order supports an entablature with a deep enriched frieze below a dentil cornice and a balustraded parapet. The building is enclosed by cast-iron area railings, and the stepped return features tripartite windows and a canted bay. The rear part of the premises was rebuilt in the mid-20th century.
Inside, the building retains a central square room with a circular upper gallery topped by a dome, with walls decorated in the style of Raphael's Logge by Sang and Naundorff. The original staircase was replaced by a smaller one in the 1960s. The Tie Smoking Room on the first floor front has a heavily carved ceiling. The Dining Room and Library to the north are long rooms divided into three sections by columns and pillars.
Local climate
74, St James Street SW1 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 3 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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