41, Craven Street

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 09/02/2018

TQ 3080 SW 83/19

CITY OF WESTMINSTER CRAVEN STREET, WC2 No. 41

9.1.70

GV II

Terraced town house. c.1730 with c.1792 alterations. Brown brick with red brick window dressings, channelled stucco ground floor, slate roof. Four storeys (top floor c.1792 heightening) and basement. Three windows wide. Closet wing plan. Elliptical arched doorway to right in plain stucco surround, recessed panelled door and fanlight, cornice on consoles added C19. Recessed sashes, glazing bars intact to first floor, under segmental red brick arches (the only house in Craven Street with segmental window arches). Cornice-band over ground floor stucco work as first floor sill band; parapet with coping. First floor windows have bowed delicate cast iron balconettes. Cast iron area railings with urn finials.

Interior largely intact with fielded and plain panelling and cornices; pilastered archway from hall to stairwell with dogleg turned baluster staircase of standard type (viz Nos, 11 and 12 qv) etc.

Part of the Craven family's C18 development of their Brewhouse estate, laid out by Flitcroft.

The building was occupied between1951 and 1964 by the India Club, a private members club set up as a non-political extension of the India League. The India League was a key organisation in the campaign for Indian Independence from Britain, spearheaded by Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon from 1929. Following the Indian Independence Act of 1947 the organisation refocused its activities to promote good relations between the two countries, and to support the Indian diaspora internationally. The India Club was opened on 12 January 1951 by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru; Krishna Menon and Lady Mountbatten were Honorary Presidents. Goad insurance maps record that the India Club vacated 41 Craven Street in September 1964, at which point the club moved to the Hotel Strand Continental at 143-145 Strand.

41 Craven Street was adapted, with listed building consent, for use by the College of Optometrists in the 1990s.

Listing NGR: TQ3019680433