Congress House Including Forecourt and Courtyard Sculptures
CONGRESS HOUSE INCLUDING FORECOURT AND COURTYARD SCULPTURES, 23-28, GREAT RUSSELL STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1113223
- Date first listed:
- 29-Mar-1988
- List Entry Name:
- Congress House Including Forecourt and Courtyard Sculptures
- Statutory Address:
- CONGRESS HOUSE INCLUDING FORECOURT AND COURTYARD SCULPTURES, 23-28, GREAT RUSSELL STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-08-18
- Reference:
- IOE01/12856/14
- Rights:
- © Mr David March. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1113223
- Date first listed:
- 29-Mar-1988
- List Entry Name:
- Congress House Including Forecourt and Courtyard Sculptures
- Statutory Address 1:
- CONGRESS HOUSE INCLUDING FORECOURT AND COURTYARD SCULPTURES, 23-28, GREAT RUSSELL STREET
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:
- CONGRESS HOUSE INCLUDING FORECOURT AND COURTYARD SCULPTURES, 23-28, GREAT RUSSELL STREET
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 29949 81473
Details
CAMDEN
TQ2981SE GREAT RUSSELL STREET
798-1/104/684 (South side)
29/03/88 Nos.23-28 (Consecutive)
Congress House including forecourt
and courtyard sculptures
GV II*
Trades Union headquarters building and sculptures. 1953-7. By
David du R Aberdeen. Sculptures by Jacob Epstein and Bernard
Meadows. For the Trades Union Congress. Polished granite and
blue tile cladding; aluminium windows.
EXTERIOR: 7 storeys, 28 windows in a continuous strip.
E-shaped plan round an internal courtyard on restricted site
bounded by 3 streets; imposed height limitation of 80 ft.
Building houses the Memorial Hall, Library, Secretariat and
Council Chamber. Principal elevation to Great Russell Street a
rectangular block on pilotis; recessed ground floor glazed,
upper floors continuous strip windows alternating with bands
of granite cladding, those at top floor being large
rectangular lights with a band of half lights above. Plinth in
front of entrance supporting bronze sculpture by Bernard
Meadows. Side elevation to Dyott Street more boldly modelled.
Small balconies to the five main storeys at the north end, the
glazed drum of the horse-shoe staircase to the basement in the
centre, and a projection of the first floor beneath which is
the Memorial Hall.
INTERIOR: is of interest spatially and retains most original
fixtures and fittings. Top-lighting of the hall is provided by
glazed hexagonal coffers which form part of its space-frame
roof. On the west wall of the courtyard a pyramidal screen of
green marble acts as a backdrop for the TUC War Memorial by
Jacob Epstein (1955-6).
HISTORICAL NOTE: widely regarded, at the time of its
completion and since, as one of the most important
institutional buildings erected in London, and one of the most
significant 1950s buildings in Britain.
(Architectural Review: December 1957; Jacob Epstein: Sculpture
& Drawings: London: -1987).
Listing NGR: TQ2994981473
This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 9 February 2017.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 477672
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Architectural Review in Jacob Epstein Sculpture and Drawings, ,Vol. , (1987),
Websites
War Memorials Register, accessed 9 February 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/58329
War Memorials Register, accessed 9 February 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/58332
War Memorials Online, accessed 9 February 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/67618
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 14-Dec-2025 at 19:09:29.
Download a full scale map (PDF)© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2025. OS AC0000815036. All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence number 100024900.© British Crown and SeaZone Solutions Limited 2025. All rights reserved. Licence number 102006.006.
End of official list entry