Pemberton Buildings is a Grade II listed building in the County Durham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 10 March 1988. University building. 1 related planning application.
Pemberton Buildings
- WRENN ID
- former-joist-moth
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- County Durham
- Constituency
- City of Durham MP: Mary Kelly Foy (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 10 March 1988
- Type
- University building
- Address
- Pemberton Buildings, Palace Green, City of Durham, DH1 3RS
- OS grid reference
- NZ 274 422
- Coordinates
- 54.77407, -1.57535
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Pemberton Buildings is a university union and lecture room complex, built in 1929 by W.D. Caröe. The structure is made of snecked stone with ashlar dressings and features a stone-flagged roof. It showcases a combination of Tudor and 17th-century architectural styles.
The building is three storeys high on the left side, featuring a one-bay tower, and two storeys with six bays on the right. The entrance tower includes a four-leaf door set in a Tudor arch, surrounded by a square frame with carved spandrels and a raised central panel displaying the University arms, flanked by carved bands. Above the entrance, there are four lights in a panel topped with a cornice and carved cresting, and obelisk finials on the pilasters beside it. The top storey has a shallow three-light canted window beneath a battlemented parapet.
The six-bay section has an ashlar ground floor, with the second and fifth bays projecting under gabled dormers. These bays feature two-light mullioned and transomed windows on the ground floor and tall first-floor windows with two transoms. The other bays have similar windows, but those on the first floor do not have transoms and are set back between Tuscan half- and quarter-columns that support a cyma-moulded cornice. All windows are leaded casements. The right return of the building has two shaped gables and dated rainwater heads.
This building is included for its group value.
Local climate
Pemberton Buildings receives an average of 790 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 58% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 96% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 41 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 79% of listed buildings. Of these, 24 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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