Victoria Hall And Victoria Buildings

Victoria Hall and Victoria Buildings comprise a Methodist Mission church and shops, constructed between 1898 and 1900 by Bradshaw and Gass. The building is primarily red brick and terracotta, with stone dressings and slate roofs.

The exterior presents three storeys and features two and four-window ranges on each side of a tower, which serves as the main entrance to Victoria Hall. The shop fronts have been renewed, though the original paired doors with bevelled glass panels remain at the Victoria Hall entrance. A renewed canopy now covers the entrance. The tower has paired first-floor windows with banded shafts, and a tripartite oriel window above. A pediment sits above the space where a clock was originally intended, now a blind panel. Pilasters on the tower are decorated with low relief scrollwork. A triglyph frieze runs below a balustraded parapet, which features domed, columned pilasters. The octagonal, turret-like upper stage has wrought-iron screens to the openings, volutes over the angles, and a domed roof. The outer ranges have windows set in raised panels, with stilted arched heads and stone architraves to the first floor, and wrought-iron balconettes to the second. A modillion eaves cornice is also present. A wide, pedimented gable adjoins the entrance tower, incorporating tripartite windows on the upper floors, set within stone architraves with second-floor wrought-iron balconettes. The right-hand section is built over the River Croal, supported by a two-arched bridge of rusticated stone.

Victoria Hall projects as a wing from the rear of the street range. The entrance hall has tall transomed windows leading to the stairs, and the main hall is a three-story, three-window range with tripartite windows on the first floor and segmentally arched, four-light mullioned and transomed windows on the upper story. The basement storey has transomed windows with round arched lights. A five-story service range extends to the west.

The interior entrance passage leads to a large entrance hall behind the shop premises. Staircases lead to galleries on each side, with tall transomed windows incorporating round arched lights. The hall features wood dado and plaster panelling. The main hall or church opens off this entrance hall, with a floor that slopes down to a platform and communion area. A horse-shoe gallery surrounds three sides, supported by plaster-encased columns with enriched Ionic capitals and volutes. There is arcading to each side of the gallery, and windows featuring stained glass (dated 1900 in the west window). The interior includes enriched plasterwork, a coved and panelled platform, a high relief frieze supported by heavy volutes, a curved ceiling divided into deep plaster panels, and richly ornamented parapets to the gallery. The seating and platform area have been renewed.