★★★★★ 5.0
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London Business School
This isn't actually a modern business school building at all... it's a 200-year-old residential palace that just happens to house one of the world's top business schools. You're standing before Sussex Place, completed in 1823 as 26 luxury terraced houses designed by John Nash for Regency London's elite. Look up and count those ten pointed cupolas crowning the roofline... that's pure theatrical architecture meant to impress the Prince Regent himself during his regular carriage rides through his namesake park. The man who built this place, William Smith, was working from Nash's grand vision to transform what had been Henry VIII's deer hunting grounds into London's most fashionable neighborhood. That magnificent facade with its towering Corinthian columns once welcomed gambling king William Crockford at number 26, who ran the most exclusive gaming club in St James's. Now those same Georgian rooms host MBA lectures and case studies where tomorrow's business leaders strategize in spaces where Regency socialites once schemed. When London Business School took over in the late 1960s, they kept every architectural detail intact... because this Grade I listed masterpiece represents Nash's only surviving complete residential terrace design. Step inside and you'll find original moldings and period features seamlessly blending with cutting-edge business education, proving that some locations just keep reinventing themselves while honoring their spectacular past.
Did You Know?
- London Business School was originally called the London Graduate School of Business Studies and welcomed just 36 students in its first intake in 1964, with Dr. Arthur Earle as its founding Principal—marking the birth of what would become one of the world’s most prestigious business schools.
- The School’s main campus at Sussex Place, Regent’s Park, is housed in a striking Victorian building that once served as a hospital and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1970; the campus later expanded into the historic Marylebone Town Hall (now the Sammy Ofer Centre) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, blending classic and modern architecture in the heart of London.
- London Business School has a tradition of hosting influential figures for intimate dinners—Lady Lindsay Ball, widow of a former Principal, recalled that every Wednesday, the School would invite captains of industry and political leaders, including figures like Margaret Thatcher, Denis Healey, and Lord Wilson, fostering a unique bridge between academia, business, and government.