Number 45 Millbank

16 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4JU

• Nearest station: Pimlico (Victoria Line)
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Number 45 Millbank is a Grade Two listed complex of imposing neo-Baroque architecturally acclaimed buildings, and has since 2004 been home to the world-famous Chelsea College of Art and Design.

Built between 1904 and 1907 as the Royal Army Medical Corps Headquarters Mess and College on the site of London's largest prison; the Millbank Penitentiary. Completed in 1821 at a cost of £500,000 the prison was hailed as the greatest prison in Europe. Its pioneering ‘panopticon’ design was devised by Jeremy Bentham, the philosopher and philanthropist, and later used for other English penal institutions. At its centre was the Governor’s House, which allowed prison guards to keep watch over 1,500 transportation prisoners housed in separate cells in the surrounding pentagonal blocks. There were three miles of cold, gloomy passages: the turnkeys invented a code of chalked directions to stop getting lost in the maze!

From above, it was like a vast six-petalled flower of dirty yellow brick, a multi-turreted fortress with bars at the windows. Surrounding it was a stagnant outer moat, enclosing over 16 acres of cold, damp squalor. Hard to imagine now standing on the vibrant banks of the River Thames. Closed in the late 1800s, it was demolished for the building of the Tate Gallery, and the Royal Army Medical College and Regimental Mess. Three million bricks were salvaged from the site!

The Royal Army Medical College (RAMC) was designed in Imperial Baroque style by John Henry Townsend Woodd and Wilfred Ainslie, two Scottish architects who practised in partnership in London from 1887. This was their most prominent commission. The adjoining Regimental Officers’ Mess and Commandant’s House, in French Renaissance style, was the work of the same firm. Construction on this Millbank complex started in 1904, and King Edward VII and Queen Alexander officially opened. the complex on 15th May 1907.

The Banqueting Hall was originally the RAMC Dining Room. the Red Room was the retiring room for senior officers. Only the ranks of Brigadier and above were permitted to sit on the upholstered settle by the fireplace! And the Green Room was the retiring room for junior officers.

In 1999, the RAMC finally moved from the site, and the four Grade II listed buildings were bought from the Ministry of Defence by the London Institute in 2000. It was a unique opportunity to co-locate a major arts educational institution – Chelsea College of Art and Design – alongside an international art gallery, Tate Britain.

The Banqueting Hall with its elaborate ceiling, decorated with late 17th century style plasterwork in subtle two-tone paints, offers the venue for our Burgundy tasting. Below it, tall casement windows flood light on to fireplaces festooned with carved swags of fruits and cherubs. The lofty gallery rises above rich wood panelling and a specially commissioned ‘wave’ carpet, to create a room of elegant Edwardian grandeur mixed with contemporary chic.