Kew Observatory is a Grade I listed building in the Richmond upon Thames local planning authority area, England. First listed on 10 January 1950. A Built 1768-1769 Observatory.
Kew Observatory
- WRENN ID
- silent-span-heath
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Richmond upon Thames
- Constituency
- Richmond Park MP: Sarah Olney (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 10 January 1950
- Type
- Observatory
- Address
- Kew Observatory, Old Deer Park, TW9 2SB
- OS grid reference
- TQ 171 757
- Coordinates
- 51.46888, -0.31465
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Kew Observatory is a Grade I listed building designed by Sir William Chambers and constructed between 1768 and 1769. It was built after Dr. Stephen Demainbray encouraged King George III to take an interest in the transit of Venus. Chambers designed the observatory as a small villa, featuring canted bays on the north and south fronts, which create a pair of conjoined octagonal rooms aligned on one axis. The building has remained largely unaltered since its construction, aside from the raising of the side roofs to the level of the observing chamber sometime after 1884.
The observatory has three storeys, including a basement, and is finished in stucco. It is five windows wide, with staircases on either side of the entrance on the first floor. The basement is rusticated, and there are cornices above the first and second floors, along with a balustraded parapet. The windows are square-headed and moulded, with some featuring pediments. At the roof, there is a dome that houses the observatory equipment. The interior has not been seen.
Local climate
Kew Observatory 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 92% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 90% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 64% of listed buildings. Of these, 13 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
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- 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.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings