Gregson Memorial Institute

Former lecture hall, art gallery and museum built in 1895 and designed by A P Fry. The building is constructed of brown brick with pressed red brick and sandstone dressings, and has slate roofs. It displays an eclectic architectural style combining Old English, Arts and Crafts and Baroque influences externally, with Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau elements in the interior. The building is mainly single storey with an integral two-storey caretaker's house.

Layout

The double-height lecture hall occupies the front of the building, running parallel to Garmoyle Road. Behind it are two smaller parallel museum and art gallery rooms, with two further museum and art gallery rooms positioned at right angles to the road in each rear corner. The main entrance hall and caretaker's house are located at the far right (south-east) of the building, whilst a secondary entrance hall with access to two first floor curator's rooms is at the left (north-west) end.

Exterior

The front range and caretaker's house have pitched roofs, whilst the rear museum and art gallery rooms have flat roofs with large skylights. Sash windows throughout feature geometrically patterned glazing bars. Pressed brick quoining detail and quoined surrounds are provided to all windows. Sandstone lintels and sills appear on the side elevations, some with pressed brick relieving arches. Entrance doors are fitted with iron lamp brackets and fittings above.

The main front (south-west) elevation features a three-bay single storey main entrance at the far right. The centre bay projects slightly forward and contains large arched panelled double doors set within a wide decorative stone and brick surround. A curved stone pediment rises above the roofline, incorporating short flanking piers with triangular tops and ball finials. The pediment contains carved floral designs and relief lettering reading 'THE GREGSON MEMORIAL INSTITUTE AND MUSEUM'. Flanking sash windows have a single vertical glazing bar to the lower sashes and vertical and curved horizontal glazing bars to the upper sashes.

To the left of the entrance is a six-bay double-height lecture hall section. Full-height pilaster strips surmounted by carved stone finials (in the same style as those to the main entrance) appear at the right end bay and between bays 1 and 2. Shorter pilaster strips between bays 2 and 3 and bays 5 and 6 have stone detailing to their upper parts. A carved stone eaves cornice runs along this section, with a tile ridge roll and ridge stack towards the left (north-west) end. Bay 1 contains a 6-over-3-over-1 sash window to the ground floor with an adjacent narrow 1-over-1 window, and a 6-over-3-over-2 sash window to the first floor; all have sandstone lintels and sills with pressed brick relieving arches. The remaining bays feature large stone four-light arched windows (with glazing bars to lower lights) with pressed brick arched heads and quoined surrounds. The centre bay has a taller window with a decorative raised gable featuring curved sides and a pediment incorporating a dentil cornice. The tympanum contains a small rectangular vent. Relief lettering on a shallow projecting decorative carved stone panel beneath the pediment reads '1895'.

The left (north-west) side elevation shows the gable end of the lecture hall section with vertical and horizontal brick banding detail. A secondary entrance with double doors (glazed upper panels now covered over) is positioned to the ground floor right, with paired sash windows to the left (both missing some glazing bars) in the same style as those to the front. Above the centre is a 4-over-2-over-2 stair window, with smaller 3-over-1-over-1 windows above to the first floor and a 6-over-3-over-2 window above left. A small square window (now boarded over) lights the attic or roof space. To the left is a single storey flat-roofed three-bay section with 8-over-8 sash windows (two to the left missing some glazing bars) incorporating four-pane fixed lights at the top.

The right (south-east) side elevation displays one and a half gable ends to the left main entrance section with vertical brick banding to the gables, and four windows arranged as 4-over-2-over-2, 2-over-1-over-1, 2-over-1-over-1, and 4-over-2-over-2. The two-bay two-storey caretaker's house is to the right with end ridge stacks. The left bay is clad in pressed brick. A shallow triple-light bay window to the ground floor left contains 3-over-1-over-1 sashes, whilst paired 4-over-2-over-1 sash windows serve the rest of the house. A raised high brick wall is attached to the far right with a doorway leading into a small rear yard.

The rear (north-east) elevation comprises single storey flat-roofed museum and gallery rooms and a continuation of the yard wall to the south-east end, with four windows in similar style to those on the left side elevation.

Interior

The interior retains its intact floor plan with Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau elements throughout. Coloured glazed tiled walls appear throughout in brown, blue, green, cream, black, burgundy and yellow, some with relief decoration. Patterned mosaic floors survive in all areas except the caretaker's house, the two first floor curator's rooms and the lecture hall, which have original floorboards. Moulded cornicing, original moulded architraves and panelled doors survive throughout. The original heating system survives along with manually controlled air vents with hand-shaped controls in the main rooms.

The large open double-height main lecture hall to the front has a barrel-vaulted ceiling with curved trusses, a sloping floor, and elaborate colourful tiled and mosaic decoration to all walls. Relief decorated tiles are set within tall vertical panels. Mosaic decoration to the apex of the ceiling at the north-west end depicts garlands, laurel leaves, fruit and ribbons. A central roundel contains the initials 'S L G'. Decoration to the apex at the south-east end depicts a similar design and the initials 'I G'. An original timber stage with glazed tile front exists to the north-west end with curved side stairs.

The aligned rear museum and art gallery room adjacent to the rear alley features an elaborate tiled peacock scene frieze (partially damaged). The aligned room immediately to the rear of the lecture hall has an Art Nouveau patterned tiled frieze. Both rooms have inserted removable low partition walls or screens to their north-west ends. A similar styled Art Nouveau patterned frieze survives in the rear left room although currently painted over. The tiled frieze has been removed from the rear right room, where a small kitchen has been inserted to the north-east end. White patterned tile ceilings and large skylights (most covered over) appear in all museum and art gallery rooms.

A large entrance hall aligned north-east to south-west at the far right of the building has two double doors to the left leading into the lecture hall, with toilets to the right. A panelled mahogany door to the rear of the entrance hall leads into the museum and art gallery rooms. Its carved decorative mahogany surround incorporates the initials 'M G', 'I G', and 'A G'.

An original timber dog-leg stair with coloured tiled walls (with a band of relief decorated tiles in line with the handrail) at the north-west end of the building behind the lecture hall leads to two first floor curator's rooms or offices. These rooms have cream tiled walls with burgundy and pale brown banding detail, moulded cornicing, and tiled chimneybreasts with integral fireplaces (the rear room has an inserted gas fire). A similar styled fireplace exists in the ground floor room below next to the secondary entrance hall.

In the caretaker's house, some moulded cornicing and original cupboards survive, with two cast-iron fireplaces in the first floor rooms. The ground floor dining room is now partitioned to create toilets. The rear door into the yard has been widened and replaced, and the kitchen has been altered. The basement comprises two small rooms.

History

The Gregson Memorial Institute was designed by A P Fry, who exhibited his designs for the building at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition in 1895. The hall was commissioned by Isabella Gregson in memory of her parents and other relatives, including Matthew Gregson (believed to have possibly been Isabella's grandfather and a notable mid-19th century civic figure and antiquarian in Liverpool), as an art gallery, museum and lecture rooms. The institute was constructed 'for the promotion of Literature and the Arts and Sciences'.

Both the library and museum collections were given to the University of Liverpool in 1906 and subsequently transferred to the city museums and university in 1933. The building was leased to the Liverpool Education Authority in 1917 and transferred to the City Corporation in 1936. It was later sold to a charitable trust for a nominal sum of five pounds. The hall has most recently been used for community purposes including as a polling centre and community facility, although it is now disused.

The building is designated at Grade II as an interesting survival of a high quality, eclectically styled, small-scale late Victorian museum, art gallery and lecture rooms that was privately donated for the local community. It is unaltered externally and retains both its original floor plan and the majority of original interior features. The high quality interior is richly decorated with mosaic floors and colourful glazed tile ceilings and walls throughout, some incorporating Art Nouveau friezes. Of additional note is the survival of the main lecture hall with its barrel-vaulted ceiling, sloping floor, stage and elaborate wall decoration. The building's original function is clearly identifiable and readable within its architectural design and plan layout. Unusually the institute was commissioned by a woman, Isabella Gregson, at a time when most public benefactors were men. It has significant historic interest through its association with the Gregson family (an influential family of antiquarians and patrons in Liverpool), and references to their benefaction can be found throughout the building including carved door surrounds and mosaics incorporating the Gregson family members' initials.