Pemberton Buildings

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.