Public Library, Lytham Institute and Hewitt Lecture Room is a Grade II listed building in the Fylde local planning authority area, England. First listed on 15 February 1993. Library, institute.

Public Library, Lytham Institute and Hewitt Lecture Room

WRENN ID
narrow-gable-russet
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Fylde
Constituency
Fylde MP: Mr Andrew Snowden (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
15 February 1993
Type
Library, institute
Address
Public Library, Lytham Institute and Hewitt Lecture Room, 27, Clifton Street
OS grid reference
SD 368 272
Coordinates
53.73756, -2.95883
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

This is a late 19th-century institute building, dating to 1878 as indicated by the lettering on the front parapet. It now also serves as a public library. Constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with sandstone and polychrome brick dressings, and steeply-pitched slate roofs, the building occupies an end-of-block site with a U-shaped plan. The main Institute front faces Clifton Street, while a range containing a billiard room and lecture room fronts Bannister Street, with a returned end to that range. The design is in a Gothic style.

The front range is two stories and three bays, with gabled outer bays. It features a weathered band in place of a plinth, a polychrome band at first floor level, quoin-patterned corners of white brick, and coped gables with kneelers and ornamental cast-iron finials. The centre of the front range has a porch with a moulded Tudor-arched outer doorway and hoodmould, with 2-centred arched windows to the sides. Internal steps lead up to double doors with ornamental strap hinges. Above the porch is a round-headed window with four panes of sash glazing. A stepped stone parapet displays the raised lettering "AD / 1878 / LYTHAM / INSTITUTE". To the left at ground floor is a rectangular bay window with coupled triangular-headed four-pane sashes, and to the right a canted bay window. Above these are 2-centred arched four-pane sash windows with polychrome surrounds, hoodmoulds with figured stops. The left gable wall has two windows similar to the front, including a similar rectangular bay window.

Behind the front range is the one-story, five-bay billiard room and lecture room range, with projecting gables to the second and fourth bays. These gables feature copings with kneelers and ornamental cast-iron finials. The left gable has a shallow porch with a 2-centred arched doorway above which hangs a glazed lantern containing a stained glass pane lettered "HEWITT / LECTURE / ROOM". The right gable has two 2-centred arched windows, and the other bays incorporate one, two and two round-headed four-pane sashed windows respectively. The north return wall includes three round-headed windows.

The building forms a group with the adjacent Police Station and the United Reformed Church opposite.

Local climate

Public Library, Lytham Institute and Hewitt Lecture Room sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,310 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 96% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 13 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 88% of listed buildings. Of these, 5 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • No related consent applications matched
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. Lytham Police Station and Attached Magistrates Court Grade II 39 m
  2. Former Sunday School to Lytham United Reformed Church Grade II 57 m
  3. Former Stable to Rear of Talbot Hotel, Clifton Street Grade II 117 m
  4. 13,13A and 14, East Beach Grade II 135 m
  5. 14A, East Beach Grade II 137 m
  6. Fountain House and Pinewood Grade II 139 m
  7. 15, 15A, 16 and 16A, East Beach Grade II 141 m
  8. 17 and 18, East Beach Grade II 146 m
  9. 11, East Beach Grade II 146 m
  10. 10, East Beach Grade II 150 m