Rudolf Steiner House, Marylebone: The Staircase, the Theatre and How to Visit

Rudolf Steiner House stands on Park Road, at the western edge of Regent's Park. Historic England calls it an almost unique British example of the symbolic expressionism that ran through German art before and after the First World War, and the strongest English example of Rudolf Steiner's architectural idiom. Montague Wheeler designed it for the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain; the hall was built in 1924–26 and the rest in 1931–32, and it was listed Grade II in July 1990.

The façade's Granolithic concrete blocks is adorned with unusual, organically-shaped window frames and a round stained glass feature.

It reminded me of Vienna. Not of any building in particular – the Hundertwasserhaus over in Landstraße is fifty years younger and a completely different thing, all undulating floors and trees growing out of the windows – but something about the way this house refuses a straight line has that timeless Viennese charm. Which turns out not to be a coincidence: Rudolf Steiner was Austrian, and spent his twenties in Vienna. For the other half of the feeling, Fischer's is a Viennese coffeehouse ten minutes away on Marylebone High Street.

The two staircases are the reason to come. Wheeler modelled them in clay first – Steiner's own preferred medium – and the concrete was cast to follow those shapes, so the flights bend and swell like something grown rather than poured.

The Auditorium features irregular fenestration that replicates the same irregular angles and curves seen throughout the ground floor.

Who Was Rudolf Steiner?

Considered by his peers as either a creative genius or an eccentric oddity, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, esotericist, claimed clairvoyant, and architect best known for his belief that architectural creation is a way of apprehending our place in the universe. During his lifelong attempts towards finding a synthesis between spirituality and science, he invented Anthroposophy as an esoteric system that proves the connection between spiritual and material.

Foyer floor

“A man must be able to think in shapes and colours just like he is able to think in thoughts and terms.” (R. Steiner)

Steiner's building style is usually filed under organic architecture, the broad idea that a building should take its forms from living nature rather than from the drawing board. Antoni Gaudí and Frank Lloyd Wright are the names most often put beside his, though neither had anything to do with anthroposophy and all three arrived at curves by quite different routes.

Arched Door leading to the cafe

The expressionist architects were reaching for the same spiritual and aesthetic ideals as Wassily Kandinsky, Hans Scharoun, Bruno Taut, Hans Poelzig, Erich Mendelsohn and Max Berg.

To emphasize the organic forms, there’s a water feature with lush greenery halfway up the Steiner Staircase.

When Was Rudolf Steiner House Built?

In two stages, by the architect Montague Wheeler (1874–1937): the hall between 1924 and 1926, the remainder between 1931 and 1932. Wheeler was himself an active member of the Anthroposophical Society and chaired its British branch between 1935 and 1937.

The powerful composition of the Theatre Hall is centred on the stage, originally dedicated to staging performances of "Eurythmy."

The house is faced in Granolithic concrete blocks and follows Steiner's own work, above all the first Goetheanum at Dornach in Switzerland – an extraordinary timber structure that burned down on New Year's Eve 1922 and was rebuilt in concrete.

The curved Staircase

The flowing, irregular curves and angles of the main staircase create a sensation of metamorphosis and free movement, and they are what the listing singles out: two staircases given life, as Historic England puts it, by the clay models the concrete was shaped from.

The staircase’s unusual forms and watercolored walls are a visual cue to the metaphysical ideas of Steiner's anthroposophy.

Detail of the curved, uneven sculptural staircase, inspired by organic plant forms.

What Should You Look For on the Façade?

The ground floor windows and the rounded archways. These are the elements the listing describes as making the building an almost unique British sample of the symbolic expressionism widespread in German art before and after the First World War. On the Open House tour it is where the guide starts, out on the pavement, before anyone goes in.

The Open House tour guide explaining the external features of the building.

What Is Inside the Foyer?

The Foyer was modernised in 1989-90, when the handrails and the first flight of steps were also added. Besides offering a welcoming transition into the auditorium, it's often used as an exhibition space for artworks created by anthroposophically-inspired artists.

Foyer floor

What Happens in the Steiner Theatre?

The theatre opened in 1926 and is still a working performance space. Its composition was built around “Eurythmy” – an art of movement described as visible speech and song, developed by Steiner with Marie von Sivers, in which the performer's body traces the sounds of language. The curves of the proscenium and the windows follow the same logic.

Rudolph Steiner House was built in two parts: the hall between 1924 and 6, and the remainder from 1931 to 1932.

Is There a Café?

Yes, and it is the best small surprise in the building. The wooden enclosure is set into concrete and brick, in a space that was once a fire escape, and the ceiling above it is shaped like a rhubarb leaf. What was a dead corner is now the part of the house most full of daylight.

The rhubarb leaf-shaped ceiling above the cafe illuminates a formerly "dead" part of the building with sublimely transformative daylight.

The Cafe's wooden beams is inundated by natural light, creating the sensation of a vibrant, warm, cosy space.

Can You Visit Rudolf Steiner House?

Yes, but it is a working building rather than a museum, so what you can see depends on the day. The theatre stages performances and talks, and the house holds a café, a bookshop, a library and a therapy and wellness centre alongside events on Steiner's teachings.

I went during the Open House festival, which is why these photographs exist: the guide begins outside with the façade, and then you get the staircases, the Eurythmy room and the top-floor studio in one go. That is still the only dependable way to see the whole house, and it comes round every September. If you are planning a route, here are the Open House buildings worth queueing for, and two more I have been inside on the same weekend: 113 Chancery Lane and New Scotland Yard.

Just as Steiner used the Goetheanum to set out anthroposophy in built form, Wheeler's house does the same job in London: a charismatic, welcoming and slightly enigmatic space that argues its case in concrete rather than in words.

Rudolf Steiner House London's sunny Eurythmy Room with abundant natural light and wooden panelled walls.

Top floor studio with arched window features and vaulted ceiling full of charm.

Rudolf Steiner House 📍 35 Park Rd, London NW1 6XT.

🚇 The closest London Underground Station to Rudolf Steiner House is Marylebone on the Bakerloo line (and also the Marylebone Train Station) and Baker Street (Bakerloo, Circle and Hammersmith & City, Jubilee and Metropolitan Lines).

📌 Nearby London Attractions:

• Madame Tussaud's London (550 m).

• The Regent's Park (280 m).

• Sherlock Holmes Museum (200m).

• Daunt Books Marylebone bookshop (1 km).

• Fischer's, the Viennese coffeehouse on Marylebone High Street (1 km).