Municipal Buildings

WIGAN

SD5805NW HEWLETT STREET 24-1/7/16 (North West side) 11/07/83 Municipal Buildings

GV II

Commercial offices, now municipal offices. 1900, by Bradshaw and Gass of Bolton, for the Royal London Friendly Society; extended 1939. Red brick in English garden wall bond (ground floor only), otherwise completely faced with red terracotta; green slate roofs. Long range to Hewlett Street, with convex corner and short return to Library Street. Flemish Renaissance style. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 7 bays to Hewlett Street and 3 bays to Library Street; with a very emphatic convex frieze and enriched dentilled cornice over the ground floor carried on very large enriched terracotta consoles, a deep band of flamboyantly foliated terracotta panels with stone coping between the 1st and 2nd floors, and balustraded parapets; the 2nd, 5th and 7th bays (and the 1st to Library Street) featured with tall idiosyncratic Dutch gables and the 6th bay (clasped between the 5th and 7th) with a wide segmental entrance archway and an elaborate storeyed bow above finishing in a squat dome of highly-glazed brown terracotta; and the convex corner even more elaborately treated, including a canted arcaded balcony to the 2nd floor and a richly decorated turret (now lacking its original dome). Very rich terracotta ornament includes: storeyed canted oriels to the gabled bays (except the 7th) with fluted pilasters to both upper floors and herms or mermen at the angles at 2nd floor; mullioned and transomed windows with dentilled transoms, those at 1st floor arched in each light (giving a wave-like effect); and many Art Nouveau motifs. Tall panelled and corniced chimneys. INTERIOR not inspected. Forms group with Town Hall (Library Street, qv) on opposite side of Hewlett Street, the 2 being the most impressive buildings in Wigan town centre.

Listing NGR: SD5832605601