Friendly And Trades Club

The Friendly and Trades Club, located at 9 Northumberland Street, is a Grade II listed building that was originally established as a Mechanics' Institute, with its foundation stone laid in 1859. The building is constructed of hammer-dressed stone and features a hipped slate roof. It is a single-storey structure adorned with a full entablature. The frieze is partly decorated with a scroll motif and partly inscribed with "Mechanics Institution." The building has console-shaped modillions and three blind arches, each with moulded voussoirs and continuous moulded imposts, topped with wreathed roundels in the tympana. Each arch is above a tripartite opening divided by Tuscan pilasters; the flanking openings contain sash windows, while the central opening features double doors with ten panels, accessed by a flight of steps flanked by moulded and fluted cast iron torcheres. A continuous plain sill band runs along the base. There is an area with two tripartite sash windows and cast iron railings topped with spear finials.

At the rear of the main block, there are two 18th-century wings. One wing faces Northgate and is built of hammer-dressed stone with a hipped stone slate roof, rising to three storeys. It has a modillioned eaves cornice, raised quoins, and five ranges of sash windows with glazing bars set in plain raised surrounds. The entrance features a door with four fielded panels and a fanlight in a moulded surround with a cornice, along with a rusticated ashlar zone between the door and the first-floor window above. The other wing faces Friendly Street, also constructed of hammer-dressed stone, with a pitched stone slate roof and two storeys. It has two stone mullioned sash windows on the first floor, one with four lights and the other with three lights.