Bolbec Hall

Bolbec Hall is an office building dating from 1907, designed by F.W. Rich for the Literary and Philosophical Society. It is constructed of sandstone ashlar on a granite plinth, with granite door columns. The building is designed in a Free Palladian style. It is five storeys high, with six bays, and a recessed entrance bay set at an oblique angle to the right. The main entrance has steps leading to a double door flanked by granite Ionic columns, featuring Jacobean low-relief bronzes on the lower section. A fascia above the door displays "BOLBEC HALL," with carved coats of arms positioned above. There is an ornate Venetian window on the first floor, set under a pediment. The upper floors have plainer windows in a style consistent with the main elevation. The main elevation features a double door in the first bay; aproned ground-floor windows are recessed between rusticated pilasters, and the ground-floor entablature includes a triglyph frieze. First-floor windows are set within Gibbs surrounds, featuring alternate pediments and balustrades. Shell-bracketed projections below the second-floor windows are set within enriched architraves, incorporating friezes and bracketed cornices. Bracketed sills are present on third-floor windows, also within architraves, under a richly-carved swagged frieze and modillioned cornice. Venetian windows above are housed in Tuscan cases with keyed architraves. A top entablature is surmounted by a roof balustrade with iron finials; the right corner bay has a keyed oculus set under a pediment.