Horse Guards

Horse Guards is an army headquarters built between 1750 and 1759, with a design dating from approximately 1745-48 by William Kent, and constructed by John Vardy and William Robinson under the Office of Works. The building is of Portland stone with slate roofs and represents a major Palladian structure influenced by the Burlington-Kent school, notably reflecting the characteristics of Holkham.

The Whitehall front features a main block set back behind a forecourt. This block is three stories high and three windows wide, crowned by a pediment, with single-window links connecting to four-story, single-window projecting pavilions. Two-story ranges enclose the north and south sides of the forecourt and connect to the rear of two-story, seven-window wide street front pavilions, with a three-window pedimented centrepiece breaking the facade. A Venetian composition forms the vaulted carriage archway and side footways beneath the central block. The windows are recessed glazing bar sashes, with semicircular arched framing on the ground floor and architraved cornices to the principal bays of the first floor, where the central and angle pavilion windows are set within semicircular arched panels. The pediment of the main block displays carved Royal Arms, and a balustraded parapet tops the links, while pyramidal slate roofs cover the attic storeys of the angle pavilions.

The Horse Guards Parade front presents a similar main block, but incorporates inscribed Venetian windows to the centre and over the archway, and to the first floor of the angle pavilions. Instead of a pediment, a balustraded parapet extends between the angle pavilions. Set well back are three-story, five-window wide wings with advanced arcaded ground floors, balustraded parapets, and projecting two-story, three-window, pedimented pavilion-wings. These terminal pavilion-wings feature central inscribed Venetian windows flanked by semicircular arched recesses containing pedimented windows, all with blind balustrades below the sills. The ground floor is rock faced and rusticated, with ashlar rustication to the upper floors of the main block and terminal pavilion wings. Centrally, an octagonal, domed clock tower with a cupola lantern rises above the main block, a feature echoing the design of the old Horse Guards and drawing inspiration from Vanbrugh.

The interiors are relatively plain, with the exception of the principal rooms in the main block and the octagonal hall leading to the lantern. The Horse Guards Parade front draws upon the "General Wade's House" elevational theme, derived from a Palladio town house design acquired by Lord Burlington in 1719.