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Summary

Description

James Pearson Alison, 1900. 2-storey 5-bay Franco-Renaissance public hall, on ground falling to northeast. Primary facades of snecked cream ashlar sandstone; windows with Gibbsian surrounds and keystones; long and short rusticated quoins. Base course, cornice above ground floor, cill course at 1st floor; full entablature with corniced parapet. Secondary facades of snecked rubble with stugged ashlar margins. Pavilion roofs to advanced bays. Vertically panelled doors.

WEST (ABBEY PLACE) ELEVATION: symmetrical 2-storey 5-bay main front and entrance. Slightly advanced central bay with aedicule doorway; large 2-leaf door at centre with round-headed leaded fanlight; PUBLIC HALL ERECTED AD 1900 J SWORD PROVOST carved above architrave; aedicule with pair of banded Ionic columns supporting open pediment; Venetian window above with Ionic column-mullions. Flanking bays with single windows, with cornice and pulvinated frieze at 1st floor. Outer bays slightly advanced, with broad round-headed windows at ground; single window above with pediment and balustrade apron. Set back to north, plain 3-storey single bay wing, with plain bipartite window and door at ground; plain architraved windows to upper floors; tripartite at 1st floor, bipartite at 2nd floor.

SOUTH ELEVATION: 2-storey (on raised basement to east) 4-bay. Left bay advanced with 2-leaf door with Gibbsian surround, keystone and pediment; single window above with pediment and balustraded apron. 3 bays to right symmetrical, with no parapet, but with cill course at ground; broad central bay slightly advanced and framed by pilasters supporting massive pediment, with basement, ground floor and balustrade above gently bowed; 3 windows in bow and 3 lights to basement; Venetian window above, as before; whole bay. Flanking bays with windows at ground, blank above. Rusticated quoins to right (appearing as long and short quoins on east elevation). Single storey concrete screen wall attached to east, adjoining Information Centre.

EAST (REAR) ELEVATION: at left 2-storey above raised basement gabled bay, with round-headed window at 1st floor (and iron fire escape attached); to right, tall 4-bay single storey and raised basement range of hall; tall round-headed windows to each bay (4th with blocked round-headed tripartite basement window); 2 bays to outer right 2-storey offices, with rectangular single windows at ground, and 1 above to right.

NORTH ELEVATION: broad gable to left, narrower 1 to right with gablehead stack; lower portion of elevation rendered, where addition has been removed.

Timber sash and case glazing; primary facades with 2-pane lower sashes; outer gound windows of entrance elevation with 6-pane glazing and curvilinear French-style transoms; hall with 20-pane Georgian sashes; offices to north with plate glass to front, 4-pane to rear. Front range with steeply pitched French pavilion roofs with heavy lead flashing and decorative cast iron brattishing; gables elsewhere (see above); grey-green slates. Ashlar skews and corbel skewputts. Corniced ashlar chimney stacks; cast iron downpipes.

INTERIOR: lobby with panelled ticket booth; stair to north with wrought iron banisters, grills. Hall with ribbed barrel vault supported by pilasters and consoles; proscenium arch to stage; gallery on cast iron columns, with 2nd tier of columns supporting depressed arch above.

Statement of Special Interest

The foundation stone was laid on 24 May 1900, and the hall officially opened on 8 October 1901. It was built to replace the Corn Exchange which had burnt down in 1898, and was intended to hold about 800; the cost was about £5,000. Two of the arched apartments of an old malt barn remain below the building, and it originally contained the town armoury. Its style was described by the BUILDING NEWS as an adaptation of the 'later Renaissance period'. The windows are typical of Allison - see the Carter's Rest, also in Abbey Place. The builders were James Mabon and Sons, and the joiners A Ingles and Son. The Tourist Information Centre attached to the east is by Morris and Steedman, 1975.

References

Bibliography

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