Royal Geographical Society
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, 1, KENSINGTON GORE SW7
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1217774
- Date first listed:
- 14-Jan-1970
- List Entry Name:
- Royal Geographical Society
- Statutory Address:
- ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, 1, KENSINGTON GORE SW7
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-06-19
- Reference:
- IOE01/12254/17
- Rights:
- © Mr Adam Watson. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1217774
- Date first listed:
- 14-Jan-1970
- List Entry Name:
- Royal Geographical Society
- Statutory Address 1:
- ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, 1, KENSINGTON GORE SW7
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:
- ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, 1, KENSINGTON GORE SW7
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 26759 79634
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 01/10/2012
TQ 2679 NE
85/20
14.1.70
CITY OF WESTMINSTER
KENSINGTON GORE, SW7
No 1 (Royal
Geographical Society).
GV
II*
Mansion, now headquarters of learned society. 1874-5, by Richard Norman Shaw
for William and Alice Lowther; extension of 1928-30 by G. L. Kennedy and
F. B. Nightingale for Royal Geographical Society. Red brick with gauged and
rubbed brick dressings; gabled and hipped plain tile roofs; tall fluted brick
stacks. Complex half-H plan with porch to right of central hall and former
stable range projecting from wing to left. Queen Anne style. Complex facade
of 2 storeys and attic, with 3 main bays to centre flanked by wings with hipped
roofs. Segmental arches and second-floor flat arches over cross windows with
leaded lights. Two pedimented bays to centre, breaking through coved cornice;
wing to right has semi-circular arched doorway, and first-floor balcony with
rendered coving from which tall pedimented dormer breaks through coved cornice
of hipped roof; wing to left dominated by tall stacks breaking through cover
cornice of hipped roof. Whole composition is also articulated by string
courses broken by pilasters, mostly to dormer and bay windows. Similar but
simpler 2-storey wing to left including former stables to far left with pedi-
mented dormer windows and blind oculi. Rear and side elevations in similar
style, with tall pedimented dormers surmounting canted bay windows and lateral
stack to recessed bay of rear elevation. Extension of 1928-30 to left, has
one-storey main elevations with tripartite window to canted return and statues
of Shackleton by S. Sergeant Jagger (c.1932) and Dr Livingstone by T. B. Huxley-
Jones (c.1953) set in classical stone niches. Interior: fine Queen Anne
interiors with moulded cornices, classical fireplaces and panelled doors set
in eared and pedimented architraves. Principal rooms include Hall with
panelled dado, walnut-beamed ceiling and bolection-panelled overmantle over
classical fireplace with tiles painted with coats of arms of Lowther family
by Alice Lowther; large semi-circular archway to stair-hall to right with
panelled dado and fine turned-baluster staircase rising above small former
Flower Room; Map Room, former Drawing Room to rear of hall has decorative
plaster frieze and coffered ceiling with decorative plaster spandrels. 1928-
30 extension has large lecture room and Soanian-style ambulatory. Lowther
Lodge was one of the earliest and most influential works in the Queen Anne
style, being hailed as an 'artistic landmark' in the Building News of 1875.
(M. Girovard, Sweetness and Light, 1977; A. Saint, Richard Norman Shaw, 1976;
Survey of London, Vol.38.
Listing NGR: TQ2675979634
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 412995
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Saint, A, Richard Norman Shaw, (1976)
Girouard, M, Sweetness And Light, the Queen Anne Movement 1860 -1900, (1977 )
Building News in Building News, (1875)
Survey of London in Survey of London - Northern Kensington: Volume 37, Vol. 38, (1973)
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 25-Jun-2026 at 09:27:52.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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