Horse Guards

TQ 3080 SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER WHITEHALL SW1 83/74 (West side) 5.2.70 Horse Guards GV I Army headquarters. c.1745-48 design by William Kent, built 1750-59 by John Vardy and William Robinson, of the Office of Works. Portland stone, slate roofs. The major Palladian public building of the Burlington-Kent school, but characterised as at Holkham (which it resembles) by Kent's staccato massing and isolation of the component elements of the symmetrical composition. Whitehall front has main block set back behind forecourt: 3- storeyed, 3-window wide pedimented centrepiece with one-window links to 4- storey, 1-window projecting pavilions; from subsidiary wings 2-storey ranges enclose north and south sides of forecourt and link with the rear of 2-storey, 7-window wide street front pavilions with 3-window pedimented centre breaks. (N.B. Forecourt railings and guardhouses, see separate entry.) Venetian composition of vaulted carriage archway and side footways beneath centre block. Recessed glazing bar sashes; semicircular arched and set in blind arcading on ground floor; architraved with cornices to principal bays on 1st floor where the central window and those in the angle pavilions are set in semicircular arched panels. Pediment of main block with carved Royal Arms, balustraded parapet over links and pyramidal slate roofs over attic storeys of angle pavilions. The Horse Guards Parade front has similar main block but with inscribed Venetian windows to centre and over archway and to 1st floor of angle pavilions; instead of a pedimented centre, a balustraded parapet is carried across between the angle pavilions. 3-storey, 5-window wide wings are set well back but with advanced arcaded ground floors with balustraded parapets, and with projecting 2-storey, 3-window, pedimented terminal pavilion-wings. The latter have central inscribed Venetian windows flanked by semicircular arched recesses of the same size containing pedimented windows, all with blind balustrades below sills. On this front the ground floor has rock faced rustication with ashlar rustication to upper floor of main block and terminal pavilion wings. Over the centre of the main block rises an octagonal, domed clock tower with cupola lantern (repeating a distinguishing feature of the old Horse Guards) that breaks the Palladian canon, owing more to Vanbrugh in its contours and detail. The interiors relatively plain except for the principal rooms in the main block and the octagonal hall open to the lantern; etc. As in other Kent-Burlington designs the General Wade's House elevational theme, based on a Palladio town house elevational drawing acquired by Lord Burlington in 1719, appears on the Horse Guards Parade front. Survey of London: vol XVI Tracing a Palladio Elevation; Dan Cruickshank; AR 1045 March 1984

Listing NGR: TQ3007280099