Old Trafford Bowling Club Pavilion

Old Trafford Bowling Club Pavilion

An amateur bowling club pavilion built in 1877, designed by architect John Bowden. The building stands between the former railway line and Talbot Road within the historic sporting centre of Old Trafford, fronting onto a crown green to the east.

Materials and Construction

The pavilion is constructed of orange brick with buff sandstone dressings and applied half-timbering, beneath a slate roof. The building features a projecting brick plinth with canted stone coping.

Exterior

The pavilion is of two storeys in Tudor Revival style. The ground floor is of orange brick, while the upper floor incorporates half-timbering. Blue-brick head-and-sill bands run across the façade.

The east wall overlooks the green and comprises a gabled wide central bay with elaborate bargeboards, flanked by narrower bays each with a smaller gable above two-light windows and deep eaves. The central bay is recessed at first-floor level, with a projecting balcony forming a veranda to the ground floor and a latticed timber screen. Flanking the veranda are three-light windows with moulded stone lintels, stone sills, stepped-brick mullions and timber sashes. Between bays 2 and 3 stands a decorative tall brick chimney with corbelled and stone-coped top; the equivalent to the left is truncated.

The three-bay north wall is of similar appearance, with a gable at the left and the central main entrance accessed by a short flight of modern steps. The entrance door has elaborate iron hinges. Set back at the right is the blind north wall of the first-floor billiard room, with an undercroft outside the rear entrance.

The south wall is also of three bays, with a large gable at the right and smaller gable at the left. The first-floor windows have decorative surrounds and a column-mullion, without the half-timbering found elsewhere. Two chimney stacks on this range are truncated.

The west wall has a gabled one-bay return similar to the other walls, with two larger gabled bays to the right, both blind-rendered.

Interior

The interior plan-form largely survives with its original spatial arrangement. The ground floor comprises a central pavilion overlooking the veranda and green, a south ladies' room, a north directors' room, north-west entrance and stair lobby, and service rooms to the west. The first floor contains the caretaker's flat in the south range, a central billiards room, and a cards room and lavatory flanking the stairs.

Moulded cornicing, ceiling roses, door surrounds and skirtings survive in good condition, and some panelled doors remain. The curved staircase features an impressive timber newel with a mix of spindle and splat decorative cast-iron balusters and a ramped handrail.

The billiards room is particularly notable, with moulded pilasters and frieze, exaggerated coving with decorative plasterwork, and an elaborate timber door surround. Original re-upholstered bench seating is built in around the perimeter on a raised platform. The room is thought to retain a painted glazed ceiling above the inserted ceiling tiles. The club's original score boards by the Globe Billiard Works, Manchester remain fixed to the wall.

The cards room retains a cast-iron fire surround, built-in cupboards and a safe. The caretaker's flat retains a fire surround, built-in cupboards and a panelled door.