Horse Guards
HORSE GUARDS, HORSE GUARDS PARADE SW1
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1066100
- Date first listed:
- 05-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- Horse Guards
- Statutory Address:
- HORSE GUARDS, HORSE GUARDS PARADE SW1
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1066100
- Date first listed:
- 05-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- Horse Guards
- Statutory Address 1:
- HORSE GUARDS, HORSE GUARDS PARADE SW1
- Statutory Address 2:
- HORSE GUARDS, WHITEHALL SW1
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- HORSE GUARDS, HORSE GUARDS PARADE SW1
- Statutory Address:
- HORSE GUARDS, WHITEHALL SW1
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- City of Westminster (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 30074 80089
Details
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
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 207595
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Architectural Review in Architectural Review, Vol. 1045, (1984)
Survey of London in Charing Cross the Parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields Part 1: Volume 16 , Vol. 16, (1935)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 03-Jun-2026 at 23:24:10.
Download a full scale map (PDF)© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900.© British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2026. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.
End of official list entry