Birkenhead Quaker Meeting House

This is a Quaker meeting house with an integral caretaker's house, built in 1892 to designs by George Enoch Grayson of the architectural firm Grayson & Ould. The building displays Arts and Crafts style with Vernacular Revival influences and has undergone some later alterations.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of red brick and roughcast render with sandstone dressings. The original roof covering has been replaced with concrete tiles.

Setting and Layout

The building stands within gardens on an angled plot at the junction of Park Road South and Slatey Road. It has a roughly rectangular plan aligned north-south with projections on the north and west sides. The main entrance faces Park Road South at the north end, whilst a secondary entrance on the east side facing Slatey Road provides access to both the meeting house and the caretaker's house at the southern end of the building. A private lane bounds the south side and houses adjoin the west side.

Exterior Description

The northern part of the building, containing the main entrance, rises two storeys, with a double-height meeting room to the centre behind and a lower two-storey caretaker's house at the southern end. The meeting house has a deep roof that is variously hipped and pitched with two brick chimneystacks: one at the south end of the meeting house's ridge serving the caretaker's house, and a large stack rising from the rear of the north entrance, which originally served the basement boiler and first-floor room. The windows throughout are timber; those to the main body of the meeting house mainly have small-pane leaded glazing, whilst those to the caretaker's house have plain glazing.

North Elevation

This three-bay front elevation has roughcast render to the first floor with a stringcourse between the floors and brick quoining to the corners, which is mirrored on the east and west return elevations. The central bay is gabled and projects forward with a brick frieze around the gable like a simple pediment, painted scrolled decoration to the gable, and a roundel displaying the date '1892' in stylised numerals. The bay's ground floor is lit by a two-light mullioned window set to the right with replaced plain glazing (an identical window lights the west return), and to the centre of the first floor is a large eight-light mullioned and transomed stair window with a quoined surround and replaced plain glazing. The left bay has two single-light windows, and both outer bays have quoined four-light mullioned windows to the first floor that are set immediately beneath the eaves. The main entrance is located to the right bay and is accessed by a modern ramp. It consists of Tudor-style panelled double doors set within a red-sandstone surround with crenellated carving detail to the head. To the right of the entrance is a single-light window, and attached to the far right of the elevation is a single-storey toilet projection, which is windowless on this north side.

East Elevation

This elevation comprises the eastern return of the entrance block, which has a hipped roof with a four-light gabled dormer incorporating painted timberwork. To the ground floor is a single-light window and a three-light mullioned window with replaced plain glazing, whilst to the first floor is a four-light window in the same style as those to the north elevation. To the left is a slightly recessed four-bay meeting room supported by full-height buttresses with late-20th-century or early-21st-century tie bar fixings. The bays are lit by large six-light windows with segmental-arched heads and stained-glass margin lights to the leaded glazing. To the far left, at the southern end of the building, is an integral lower two-storey caretaker's house with a pitched roof that incorporates a half-hip to the south gable end and a projecting entrance on this east side. The house is set back with a large six-light window incorporating multipaned upper lights, but the projecting entrance continues the line of the meeting room's east wall. The entrance, which provides interior access to both the meeting room and the caretaker's house, consists of a panelled door with a leaded-glazed upper panel and a red-sandstone lintel above.

South Elevation

The south gable end of the caretaker's house, which has unpainted roughcast render to the first floor and a brick frieze around the gable edge, has a ground-floor window in the same style as that to the east side, and a first-floor window with quoined jambs, brick lintel, and a replaced frame and glazing. Attached to the south-west corner of the house is a two-storey flat-roofed 1960s extension, which is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing.

West Elevation

This elevation is similarly styled to the east elevation, with the upper floor and roof dormer of the west return of the entrance block sharing the same detailing as that on the east side, but with a two-light mullioned window and a single-storey projection at ground-floor level lit by a three-light mullioned window with modern frosted glazing. One of the first-floor window's lights has been converted into a doorway, which accesses a mid to late 20th-century fire escape leading off the projection's flat roof. Below the fire escape and lying alongside the projection is a stone stair enclosed by brick walls with sandstone copings, which leads down to the basement boiler room. Like on the east side, the meeting room is buttressed on this west side and has four windows in the same style as those to the east elevation; that to the north end has replaced plain glazing. At the southern end of the elevation is the caretaker's house, which has a window and doorway with segmental-arched heads to the ground floor on this side and a 1960s inserted half-dormer window; the ghost marks of a now-removed porch are also visible by the doorway. The attached 1960s flat-roofed extension is not of special interest and is excluded from the listing. A high brick dividing wall with flat sandstone copings projects out westwards from the meeting room and provides the caretaker's house with a private garden area.

Interior

Internally the meeting house contains some simple moulded cornicing and some original cast-iron radiators survive. Unvarnished woodwork, including door architraves, survives throughout.

Ground Floor

To the north-west corner of the interior is an entrance vestibule with a quarry-tile floor, simple moulded cornicing, and a decorative heating vent. Partly-glazed panelled double doors in the vestibule's east wall lead through into a large entrance hall or lobby with cloakrooms off to each east and west side, and an open-well stair at the north end with a closed string, carved newel posts, pendants, turned balusters, curtail step, and an additional modern handrail along the wall. Double doors at the south end lead into the meeting room and adjacent to the doors is a large wall-mounted clock, believed to be original, in a carved timber case. The hall or lobby has a parquet floor and decorative heating vents at skirting level. Five-panel doors on each east and west side of the hall or lobby lead into cloakrooms and toilets with floorboard floors (covered by carpet tiles in the east cloakroom) and further decorative heating vents. The cloakrooms have painted-timber rails with original coat hooks, whilst the toilet cubicles have four-panel doors; those on the west side have quarry-tile floors, whilst those on the east side are set within their own room and retain their original toilets, one of which has a decorative foliate-patterned blue and white ceramic bowl by Doulton & Co of London and a timber seat and lid, whilst the other's bowl is plain.

To the centre of the entrance hall or lobby's south wall are partly-glazed panelled double doors that lead into a large double-height meeting room with three substantial, corbelled, timber roof trusses, the upper parts of which are concealed by a ceiling. Late-20th-century or early-21st-century tie bars span between the trusses and pendant lights hang from the trusses' tie beams. The meeting room has a timber floorboard floor, now (as of 2019) covered over by carpet tiles, and a panelled dado to all four walls with an additional row of panelling above the dado on the south wall. Also alongside the south wall is a raised dais with an elders bench (the meeting house no longer has elders and the bench is now only used on busy occasions); a balustrade that was originally located in front of the bench was removed in the early 20th century. Mounted on the north wall and flanking the meeting room entrance are large embossed cast-iron controls for the original warm air and cold air heating system by Isaac D Smead & Co (patented on 1 August 1882). The room's original benches are unfixed and are currently arranged in a square in the centre of the room.

First Floor

On the first floor at the northern end of the building is another meeting or committee room that spans the full width of the building and is lit by the first-floor windows and dormer windows. The room has a timber floorboard floor, now covered over by carpet tiles, a chimneybreast and painted fireplace to the south wall, and the lower sections of two arch-braced roof trusses are visible below the ceiling. A modern kitchenette has been inserted at the western end of the room, along with a fire door out onto the roof of the west projection and the fire escape.

The interior of the caretaker's house was not inspected.