Phoenix Hall

Phoenix Hall is a Masonic lodge built in 1784-5 to designs by John Bonner. A banqueting range was formed from an existing attached building in 1890-1894 and extended in the late 20th century. A rear entrance hall range was added in 1923.

The front temple range is built of slender brick in Flemish bond with an ashlar plinth and dressings. The right (east) pent is of poorer quality brick laid in garden wall bond. The rear banqueting hall range is limestone rubble with brick dressings and a rendered breeze-block extension. The early 20th-century entrance hall range is red brick. The front and banqueting ranges have dark grey slate roofs, whilst the right pent has a purple slate roof.

The building comprises a front temple range consisting of a rectangular lodge room with attached east pent. A rectangular banqueting range is attached to the rear with a shorter rectangular extension to the west side. An L-shaped rear extension sits in the angle between the lodge room and the banqueting range.

Front Temple Range

The principal south-facing elevation sits beneath a hipped roof with two truncated rear chimney stacks and one truncated right-end chimney. The elevation was originally symmetrical, with a central lodge room flanked by pent-roofed bays to either side; the left pent has now been removed. The Palladian-style elevation features a central window set within a tall, shallow, round-headed recess with a plain stone head on impost blocks and a bracketed stone pedimented aedicule. A replacement steel masonic symbol fills the tympanum of the arch. Flanking windows have plain stone surrounds supported on a plain sill band. All three windows have replacement six-over-six un-horned sash frames. There is a moulded stone eaves cornice and a re-built brick parapet.

The lower right bay is set back slightly and has a pitched roof with stone coping and a plain eaves band. A window and door opening are blocked, the former with a replaced stone lintel and projecting sill, the latter with an original worn threshold and the bases of a former pediment. A low brick boundary wall with ashlar coping and modern metal fencing stands in front of the elevation.

The right return has a ground floor wall set back slightly from a thicker basement wall, which itself sits upon irregular stone walling. There is a wide blocked basement entrance with a blind and a blocked window above, and a later small window to either side. The remainder of the elevation has renewed brickwork and is blind. The left return is also blind.

Rear Banqueting Range

A two-storey range with a pitched roof is attached to the north elevation of the east pent, extending across part of the north elevation of the lodge room and rising above both. The east elevation has three tall first-floor segmental-headed windows with brick surrounds; remains of previous windows are visible at each end. There is a wide segmental-headed basement doorway, now blocked, and a plain inserted basement door and three small blocked windows. The north elevation is buttressed but otherwise blind. A late 20th-century rectangular lean-to extension is attached to the west elevation, reached by concrete steps.

Rear Entrance Hall Range

Constructed against (and obscuring) the rear elevation of the front range is an L-shaped, two-storey, red brick, flat-roofed extension with five bays to the north elevation and three bays to the west elevation. Windows are a mixture of metal sash and casement frames with stone or concrete lintels. A recessed central entrance in the north wall has a moulded and lugged surround.

Front Temple Range Interior

The rectangular lodge room or temple is the centrepiece of the building, designed in neoclassical style to emulate Solomon's temple. The 20th-century floor has chequer-board laminate with a band of smaller tessellation. The ceiling has a central gilded carved wood roundel representing the blazing sun, with a central circle with a blue background and seven stars and at the centre a large gilded G within a triangle representing the deity of the Great Architect of the Universe.

The walls are plaster panelled and have a chair rail, a moulded cornice, and six-panelled doors, but the centrepiece of each is treated differently. The east wall is designed to frame the Worshipful Master's throne and comprises a composition of cornices, arches and niches that breaks forward twice. The throne sits within a central niche with a smaller niche to each side, set between two engaged Doric columns supporting a round-headed arch. The columns represent the biblical bronze pillars Jachin and Boaz, that stood at the entrance to Solomon's temple. A recessed arch within this arch has a sunburst with a central gilded rising sun resting on a simple entablature in the tympanum. The rising sun symbolises the start of a meeting. The outer niches contain seats with boarded curved backs. To either side of the centrepiece is a doorway with a moulded architrave.

A similar but plainer composition adorns the west wall with doorways and a recessed arch springing from capitals. It contains the Senior Warden's chair with a balustrade gallery above, which houses an organ of 1785, surmounted by a Phoenix. A gilded crescent moon on the balustrade symbolises the closing of a meeting and is repeated in the broken pediment of the chair.

The south wall has the simplest composition, breaking slightly forward with a similar round-headed arched recess, the arch springing from impost mouldings. The tympanum contains a similar sunburst to the east wall above the Junior Warden's chair.

The north wall has a pair of Adam-style chimney pieces with Doric entablatures, the lintels adorned with decorative foliage and a moulded vase. Mounted within three of the plaster panels are three early 19th-century tracing boards representing the three degrees of masonry; the central board shows the pillars Jachin and Boaz at the entrance to Solomon's temple, the very structure that the lodge room emulates.

The east pent is fitted out as a late 20th-century bar. A former stick baluster stair (balusters mostly removed) with a handrail and a heavy moulded newel post leads down to a basement. The latter opens into a large cellar beneath the lodge room, with visible original timber floor beams and a buttressed north wall supporting the pair of fireplaces above, and a central blocked door.

Rear Banqueting Range Interior

The original part of the banqueting hall retains elements of its 1890s decorative scheme including a moulded cornice and plaster ceiling roses. Skirting boards and a dado rail continue into the late 20th-century western extension. The north wall has a substantial fireplace with a four-centred arch surround and a cast-iron fireback dated 1588, with the initials IFC and two anchors, fleur-de-lys and roses, flanked by vines. To either side of the fireplace there are tall round-headed niches. The late 20th-century western extension is plainly appointed. The basement is occupied by a large modern kitchen that obscures original fabric although the north wall is thought to house a large chimney breast.

Rear Entrance Hall Range Interior

An entrance lobby opens into a central hallway which has an early 20th-century decorative scheme with moulded skirting boards, dado rail and an egg and dart moulded cornice. 20th-century panels of Past Masters are affixed to the wall. Doorways giving access to the main ground floor rooms have moulded curvaceous architraves. A stick baluster stair with mahogany handrail gives access to the first floor former caretaker's accommodation, which now serves as offices and other functions including a robing room.