Edgar Allen Building, Firth Hall, Rotunda And Quadrangle

Edgar Allen Building, Firth Hall, Rotunda and Quadrangle

A university hall and former library, now offices, with adjoining laboratories and lecture rooms forming three sides of a quadrangle. The main block was built between 1903 and 1905, the octagonal rotunda (former library) between 1909 and 1911, and the quadrangle completed in 1914. All buildings were designed by E Mitchel Gibbs, who drew up plans for a double quadrangle that was never realised. Later twentieth-century alterations have been made. The buildings are constructed in red brick with ashlar dressings and slate roofs, designed in the Perpendicular Revival style.

The exterior features a plinth, string courses, machicolated eaves, crenellated parapets, and coped gables throughout. Windows are predominantly mullioned and cross-mullioned with stone mullions and surrounds.

The main block to the right is two storeys with a basement and attics, arranged in a seven-window range. It has a steeply pitched roof with three gablets, topped with an octagonal wooden lantern with spire and weather vane. A central shallow canted oriel window contains a 3-light window with flanking lights, with three similar 3-light windows on either side, all featuring panel tracery. The central entrance has a moulded elliptical arch with mid-twentieth-century brick cheeks and concrete lintel carrying a crest. Below this are three 3-light windows with label moulds on either side, and two similar basement windows without label moulds to the right.

The right return features a central three-storey canted bay window with a 3-light window on each floor, the first-floor window considerably taller. Above is a 2-light pointed arch window with hoodmould in the gable. To the right stands a six-storey octagonal tower with a crenellated parapet, displaying three 2-light mullioned windows on the lower four floors, two cross-mullioned windows on the next floor, and a 2-light mullioned window at the top. The left return contains a two-storey canted bay window with a 3-light window on each floor and a 2-light pointed arch window in the attic.

To the left is a tall rectangular block of six storeys with a two-by-two window arrangement. An octagonal stair tower of seven storeys with a crenellated parapet rises from the front to the right, featuring two stepped 2-light cross casements on the three lower floors, a single cross casement on the next floor, then four floors with 2-light mullioned windows, and finally two small slit windows in the parapet. To the left of this tower are two small windows on the two lower floors, then two floors with single cross casements, a single light, and finally a 2-light mullioned window.

A gable to the left displays two 3-light windows, with a similar window above it to the left. Below this is a canted bay window with three lights, and a 3-light window to its right. A single-storey glazed corridor connects to the rotunda, featuring a pointed arched glazed double door and a large lancet window.

The octagonal rotunda is two storeys with a basement, featuring a plinth, sillband, crenellated parapet, and a partly glazed pyramidal roof. Seven canted bay windows each contain a 4-light mullioned window with panelled transoms decorated with shields and 2-light similar sidelights. Below, on the ground floor and basement, are 4-light mullioned windows with 2-light flanking windows.

The west front of the rotunda has three storeys with a central projecting gable containing three windows: a segmental bow window flanked by single 3-light windows, with a 3-light window above featuring a hoodmould, itself flanked by 2-light mullioned windows. The ground floor has an elaborate stone doorway with a mullioned overlight, flanked by single 3-light windows. Beyond these are three-storey ranges with three windows on each floor, the upper ones being transomed gabled dormers. Single large projecting gables with three windows on each floor follow, the second-floor central window having a shouldered pointed head. End bays with two windows on each floor complete the composition, with the right one containing a corridor to the rotunda.

Inside the quadrangle, the main block displays a central canted two-storey oriel window with a 5-light transomed mullioned window, with smaller windows and doors below. To the left are three 3-light and two 2-light windows, and to the right are three paired 2-light windows. Below, on either side, are three paired 2-light windows.

A canted three-storey tower to the left features a 4-centred arched door in the return angle with a mullioned overlight. The left block is four storeys with a fifteen-window range, including a central entrance and a shallow second-floor oriel beneath a central gable, flanked by six gabled dormers to the left and six to the right. A six-storey octagonal stair tower stands at the corner, displaying a 4-centred arched door and a window on each floor.

The rear block is four storeys with a ten-window range, featuring a central 4-centred arched entrance and three first-floor oriel windows, complemented by ten gabled dormers. An octagonal stair tower stands at the right corner. To its right is a projecting block with a large left gable featuring crocketed pinnacles. This section has a central two-storey crenellated oriel window with four lights on each floor and below a 5-light traceried window. The left return contains two windows on each floor. To the right is a range with three windows on each floor and three gabled dormers, followed by a final gable with three windows on each floor.

Internally, the entrance features wrought-iron gates and two moulded Tudor arches with half-glazed double doors and overlights. The entrance hall has two similar arches and an open well cantilever stone stair with a cross beam ceiling above. The ground-floor spinal corridor has moulded brick Tudor arched openings. The first-floor corridor displays similar arches and an arch-braced roof with wall shafts.

Firth Hall features an arch-braced principal rafter roof with drops and a wall plate decorated with shields. Three pairs of glazed double doors, two with side and top lights, open from this space. The corridor to the rotunda has a curved beamed ceiling and a pair of doors on each side. Stone steps lead to a stilted arched entrance to the rotunda.

The rotunda interior contains a circular arcade with clustered piers and transoms decorated with portrait masks of university benefactors, framed by moulded Tudor arches. An arch-braced roof with a leaded glazed octagonal skylight, itself arch-braced, crowns the space. A cantilevered concrete winder stair with traceried wrought-iron balustrade provides access.

Fittings include a Gothic arched freestanding war memorial dated 1926 by H St John Harrison, and a marble bust of Mark Firth dated 1879. The buildings are further furnished with repousse copper door furniture and octagonal lanterns.