Provincial House (former St Vincent's Presbytery)

This former presbytery and oratory chapel, now offices, was built in 1878 by the architectural firm M E Hadfield & Son for the Vincentians. The building is constructed of brick with brick and stone dressings, a red Hollington stone porch, and tiled roofs in the Italianate style.

Plan

The building is four storeys high with a rectangular plan, incorporating a partial cellar and a full-height central staircase and WC wing to the rear. A two-storey rear wing projects at the east corner, and there is a rear apsidal chapel. The chapel is aligned south-east to north-west but is described using liturgical compass points.

Exterior

The front north-west elevation faces Solly Street and is built of brick in English bond with moulded and gauged brick and sandstone dressings. The four-storey elevation is six bays wide with a central porch, set back behind a low brick wall that connects to the outer corners of the projecting porch. The porch is built of ashlar with two rusticated pilasters flanking a round-headed doorway, supporting a broken segmental pedimented roof. The tympanum contains a relief date boss carved "AD 1878" surrounded by foliate decoration. The doorway has a moulded stone surround and original fielded-panel double doors with an overlight above featuring a moulded and panelled timber lintel with segmental head. Each side elevation of the porch has a round-headed doorway with panelled timber double doors, now glazed in the upper panels, with clear glass overlights.

The building features rusticated brick corner pilasters, a stone plinth, stone sill bands to the first and second floors, a dentil brick and moulded stone sill band at third-floor level, and a moulded brick and stone parapet with a projecting pedimented panel at the centre. This central panel has brick pilasters supporting an entablature with swagged, moulded decoration and a triangular pediment containing a stone panel with weathered relief carving. Four evenly-spaced tall brick stacks—two gable stacks and two ridge stacks—feature blind round-headed arcading to their faces with giant stone keystones and brick dentil and moulded stone cornices.

The raised ground floor has three tall, segmental-arched windows with stone sills on each side of the porch. The first floor has six tall windows with rusticated brick surrounds, stone keystones, and moulded-brick triangular pediments. Above the porch is a stone panel set in a relief brick surround with a triangular pediment, inscribed "EVANGELIZARE PAUPERIBUS MISIT ME S LUCA IV 18", the motto of the Vincentians. The second floor has six shorter windows with rusticated brick surrounds and flat-headed lintels of gauged brick with stone keystones. Between the third and fourth windows is a narrow stone panel inscribed "S VINCENTI ORA PRO NOBIS". The third floor has six shorter windows with flat-headed lintels of gauged brick with stone keystones and stone sills. Between the third and fourth windows is a round-headed statue niche (formerly containing a statue of St Vincent) flanked by rusticated brick pilasters. All windows retain the original two-over-two pane hung sashes.

Both side elevations have rusticated brick pilasters at the outer corners with the first-floor stone sill band, third-floor brick and stone sill band, and parapet carried round from the front elevation. Each elevation has a slightly projecting chimney stack that narrows as it rises. The bay to the rear of the building has a window on each floor similarly detailed to those on the front elevation. Side elevation windows all have six-over-six pane hung sash windows. Attached to the left-hand side of the north-east elevation is a two-storey, three-bay rear wing built of brick. The north-east elevation has three windows on each floor with flat-headed lintels of gauged bricks and stone sills, fitted with six-over-six pane hung sashes.

The rear elevation has rusticated brick pilasters at the outer corners with the first-floor stone sill band, third-floor brick and stone sill band, and parapet carried round. Windows have flat-headed gauged brick lintels and stone sills with six-over-six pane hung sashes. Projecting to the rear is a brick chapel building with a round apsidal east end. The north and south side elevations have four bays with tall, round-headed lancet windows now fitted with modern uPVC frames. A modern metal fire escape has been added against the north-east elevation.

Interior

The original layout remains largely as built, except for the former chapel which has had a modern floor and timber staircase inserted. The central porch provides the main entrance. The porch lobby has an inner, round-headed doorway with panelled double doors (upper panels now glazed) and a plain glass overlight. The doorway opens into an entrance hall with a timber mantelpiece on the right-hand side wall. To the rear is a narrower staircase hall with a large open well staircase featuring a heavy circular stone newel post (now painted), stone steps, a swept moulded handrail, and decorative metal balustrading with anthemion and scroll motifs. Beneath the staircase is a doorway to WCs, with similar doors opening off the staircase's quarter landings. The stair hall has a moulded cornice and inset geometric panelling to the plastered landing beam, repeated on the upper floors.

On each side is a wide, round-headed arch opening into a corridor running along the rear of the building, off which the rooms open. The arches are presently infilled with modern timber and glazed screens and doors. Similar round-headed arches open off the stair landings on the upper floors; timber and glazed screens presently separate the staircase from the corridors. The corridors and rooms all have simple, moulded cornices. Doorways have moulded architraves. The principal doors on the ground floor are six-panelled with smaller central panels, and some have rectangular two-pane overlights. Other doors throughout are four-panelled, some with panels replaced by glazing. Most fireplaces have been removed, but several timber mantelpieces survive, including that in the former refectory on the ground floor.

Opening off the first-floor eastern corridor, a short corridor to the rear leads through to the ground floor of the chapel due to a rise in the land. This corridor has a raised ceiling with round-headed niches to each side above a cornice. Set in the side wall is a holy water stoop with a round-headed niche over. Adjacent to the chapel corridor and rising between the ground and first floors of the main building is a narrow back staircase with turned timber newel posts, square balusters, and swept handrail. Beneath this staircase are stone steps down to a small cellar beneath the north-east end of the building. The interlinking cellar rooms have barrel-vaulted brick roofs and rubble-stone walls. Two old iron boilers no longer in use remain in situ.

The former chapel does not retain any ecclesiastical fixtures or fittings. The ceiling retains its plastered ceiling beams with inset geometric panels similar to those in the main staircase hall.

Subsidiary Items

A low perimeter wall separates the building from the footpath and forms the boundary. It is built of brick in English bond with moulded stone coping and is ramped to accommodate changes in ground levels. Where the wall is attached to the central entrance porch there are decorative stone consoles on top of the coping. There is a break on both sides of the front wall with steps up to paths leading to the side doors in the porch. To the rear is an area with a brick retaining wall with stone coping at ground-floor level topped by iron railings. This area continues as a passageway with a rubble-stone retaining wall beneath the chapel.

Exclusions

The modern floor inserted into the former chapel, the timber staircase accessing it, the external modern metal fire escape on the north-eastern side of the chapel, and the light-weight modern timber and glazed screens within the archways opening off the main stairwell and on the staircase landings of the main building are not of special architectural or historic interest.