London House

LONDON HOUSE, DOUGHTY STREET

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1113121
Date first listed:
19-Apr-1996
List Entry Name:
London House
Statutory Address:
LONDON HOUSE, DOUGHTY STREET
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Date:
2007-06-22
Reference:
IOE01/16209/08
Rights:
© Mr Andrew More. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1113121
Date first listed:
19-Apr-1996
List Entry Name:
London House
Statutory Address 1:
LONDON HOUSE, DOUGHTY STREET
Statutory Address 2:
LONDON HOUSE, GUILFORD STREET
Statutory Address 3:
LONDON HOUSE, MECKLENBURGH SQUARE

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
LONDON HOUSE, DOUGHTY STREET
Statutory Address:
LONDON HOUSE, GUILFORD STREET
Statutory Address:
LONDON HOUSE, MECKLENBURGH SQUARE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Greater London Authority
District:
Camden (London Borough)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
TQ 30655 82299

Details

TQ3082SE
798-1/96/1755

CAMDEN
MECKLENBURGH SQUARE (South side)
London House

19/04/96

GV
II
Includes: London House DOUGHTY STREET.
Includes: London House GUILFORD STREET.

International Hall of Residence for post-graduates. 1936-63. By Sir Herbert Baker (who prepared a complete scheme in the 1930s), Alexander T Scott and Vernon Helbing.

Basement of flint with random stone blocks. Upper storeys of red brick with stone quoins, bands and cornices. Hipped roofs of tile. Neo-Georgian style, with collegiate planning.

EXTERIOR: Two-four main storeys. Irregular fenestration with sash windows; dormers in roofs.

Guilford Street (south) front: centre and right wing of 1936-7, left wing of 1949-54. Basically symmetrical, with broad projecting ends and lower centre, the central entrance having three open round arches, the middle one higher, and heraldic devices in stone above. Right wing (housing library) with stone plaque between ground and upper storey commemorating Sir Charles Parsons, and cornice with large inscription in raised brickwork, 'Immortalis est ingenii memoria'.

Doughty Street (east) front largely of 1961-3, similar to south front but simplified, with three open round entrance arches in centre, the middle one raised.

Mecklenburgh Place (west) front of 1949-54 plain, basically symmetrical with some irregularities and occasional iron balconies. Open quadrangle within has good elevations, notably the east side where the five-bay stone-dressed hall is set left of centre with full-height central bay bearing inscription to Evan Evans Bevan below round-headed window; and south side which has projecting round-arched cloister arcade along ground storey and a bust of F.C Goodenough in niche over central entrance.

INTERIOR: wing of 1936-7 has generous asymmetrical staircase hall, paved and walled to half-height in Hopton Wood stone, balustrade partly stone, partly iron, urns in niches. Double-height dining hall with high oak panelling, plaster over with astronomical 'Empire clock' at south end, and cove to ceiling with coloured plaster shields and devices by Laurence Turner. Ground floor with common room with deep plastered beams. Parsons Library over (partly altered) with oak bookcases to half height and cove to ceiling with plaster shields and devices commemorating scientific institutions also by Turner. South-west wing includes on ground floor Churchill Room of 1952, oak-panelled to full height, and a small chapel formed in 1962-3 by Helbing with panelling behind altar.

HISTORICAL NOTE: London House was established in 1931 by F.C Goodenough, who raised the funds with which to found the Dominion Students' Hall Trust, as a place where students from the British Empire could live a collegiate life. One of Sir Herbert Baker's most characteristic later buildings, comparable with Rhodes House, Oxford, and Church House, Westminster. The post-war northern and western ranges were completed to a simplified design after Baker's death in 1944.

Listing NGR: TQ3063782266

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
477499
Legacy System:
LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of London House

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 08-Jun-2026 at 15:29:51.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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