About Us

The Royal Society of Medicine acquired Chandos House for the first time in 1963. The cost to the Society was £250,000 for a 99-year lease with a small ground rent and an additional £7,200 due for fixtures and fittings. An appeal was launched to cover the cost of purchase, conversion and furnishing, when £585,000 was raised, much more than the target. Individual benefactors were recognised by being elected to a 'Court of Benefactors'.

The Council of the Royal Society of Medicine was pleased with their purchase and the minutes of 27 November 1963 describe the building with it's 'splendid ground and first floor rooms, many of them with fine hand-painted Adam ceilings, Adam fireplaces, polished floors and superb chandeliers'. Chandos House provided 14,000 square feet of additional accommodation and underwent conversion and restoration work in order to meet the needs of the RSM. In 1967 the conversion work was complete and Chandos House became a favourite rendezvous for Fellows at lunchtime. Receptions and concerts were also held there.

The Domus Medica (hotel) was established in the former mews at 10 Duchess Street. It opened less than six months after the purchase of Chandos House and took more than 300 reservations in the first six weeks. Chandos House also provided the RSM with book storage in the basement, magnificent rooms for meetings and receptions, offices and rents. The College of Pathologists, the Nutrition Society, the Royal Medico-Psychological Association and the Excerpta Medica Foundation all took short leases.

Chandos House was sold in August 1986 to help finance the refurbishment of Wimpole Street and the acquisition of the adjoining building, the Western District Post Office. Following it's sale Chandos House remained unoccupied and was eventually placed on the English Heritage Buildings at Risk Register in 1991.

The building continued to be neglected and English Heritage, in conjunction with Howard de Walden Estates (the freeholders), in recognition of the vulnerability and importance of Chandos House, served a Repairs Notice on the leaseholders, followed by a Compulsory Purchase Order.

This prompted urgent repair work, initially under DTZ Debenham Thorpe to make the building watertight, followed by further phases under the direction of architects Donald Insall Associates. Emergency works were carried out to support and repair the decorative ceilings, which were discovered just in time and on the point of collapse. Replacement chimneypieces were carved to match the stolen originals and the Mewes and Davies gilded mirrors were restored. However, the building still could not find a new leaseholder until The Royal Society of Medicine reacquired Chandos House in 2002.

Chandos House then entered it's final phase of refurbishment, involving collaboration between different architects, designers, craftsmen and other building professions. Following research and analysis by Catherine Hassall, the decorative schemes were restored to the principal rooms.