Dell Restaurant is a Grade II* listed building in the Westminster local planning authority area, England. First listed on 11 January 1995. A 20th century Cafe. 1 related planning application.
Dell Restaurant
- WRENN ID
- deep-pediment-thunder
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Westminster
- Constituency
- Cities of London and Westminster MP: Rachel Blake (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 11 January 1995
- Type
- Cafe
- Address
- Dell Restaurant, Hyde Park, City of Westminster, W2 2UH
- OS grid reference
- TQ 278 800
- Coordinates
- 51.505, -0.15987
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Dell Restaurant is a cafe built in 1964 by architect Patrick Gwynne for the Ministry of Public Building and Works, in collaboration with Forte's and Company. The building features a central concrete core supported by deep piles, which holds radiating and tilting steel trusses that cantilever over the Serpentine. Steel columns align with the glazing line, where large plate glass windows are directly fixed. The restaurant has a polygonal plan based on an underlying octagonal form and is a single storey structure with an office concealed beneath a tent-like roof made of glass reinforced plastic. The concrete floor slab is clad in Brescia Violetta marble. A projecting balcony surrounds three sides of the building, featuring tilted steel railings that support pre-cast terrazzo seating alongside trapezoid-shaped tables arranged to complement the zig-zag shape of the structure. The design, created during 1963-1964, is notable for its imaginative lightweight form and material use, making it an extremely rare surviving example from an important architect known for his work in shop and restaurant design.
Local climate
Dell Restaurant sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 93% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 94% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 51% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 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 — 1 application
- 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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