Friends Meeting House, Warrington

Friends Meeting House, Warrington

This Quaker meeting house was built in 1830 and has undergone late-twentieth-century alterations. It is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with a plain painted ashlar stone plinth and eaves cornice, and a slate-clad roof.

The building follows a rectangular plan aligned north-east to south-west, with an offset projecting apsidal entrance and a stair hall bay on the main south-east elevation. A late-twentieth-century L-plan extension has been built against the west corner of the rear wall.

The meeting house is a tall single-storey structure with four bays on its main elevation. All windows in this elevation are tall twelve-paned sashes with exposed sash boxes and painted ashlar stone sills, set beneath gauged-brick flat-arched heads; the window in the apse is curved. The main entrance is situated in the right-hand return of the apse, facing north-east, and is closed by six-panelled double doors also set beneath a gauged-brick flat-arched head. A blocked doorway exists in the south-west side. The north-east elevation features a large recessed segmental arched panel containing a tripartite sash window with a fanlight. The rear north-west side has two large blocked window openings and a single-storey twentieth-century kitchen and toilet extension. The south-west gabled elevation is rendered and blind. The slate roof has a hip to the north-east and a gable to the south-west, where it was built against another structure now demolished. Cast-iron rainwater goods are attached to the eaves cornice.

The interior is laid out on a tripartite plan with a central corridor, two meeting rooms, and a projecting entrance and stair hall. The stair hall contains a cantilevered timber stair that follows the internal curve of the apse, with a wreathed handrail, stick balusters, an open string and timber treads. A doorway from the entrance hall leads into the corridor, which has shutters worked on a vertically sliding sash principle on both sides and broad panelled doors to the respective meeting rooms. At the far end is a toilet and kitchen extension. The south-west room is a small meeting room formed beneath a gallery supported by four tall cast-iron columns.

The principal meeting room occupies the north-east side of the corridor, with the ministers' stand positioned on the north-east wall below a large arched window. The stand retains fixed seating on two levels in grained pine; the upper bench has a divider in the centre and incorporates a hinged desk on brackets, with a built-in bookcase at one end. The stand has steps at both ends between fixed seating with tall panelled backs and ramped bench ends. The lowest tier of seating is in similar style but with shaped bench ends and has been slightly modified. A panelled dado of matching grained pine runs around the room, ramped up to the stand. Witness marks indicate former seating positions. The shuttered moveable partition and panelled gallery front at the south-west end are painted. The gallery behind the partition, accessed from the cantilevered stairs, has a tiered floor with some witness marks showing the position of former benches.