Melbourne Hall Evangelical Free Church and attached former Memorial Schools

Melbourne Hall Evangelical Free Church and attached former Memorial Schools

Church and attached Sunday Schools building, built in 1880 and 1884. Designed by Goddard and Paget of Leicester. The church is constructed in red brick with blue brick banding, while the schools feature moulded brick bands. Both buildings have plain tile roofs.

The church adopts a centralised plan in Byzantine Gothic style, crowned by a distinctive Scandinavian-style octagonal main roof. The schools building is in Domestic Revival style.

Church Exterior

The main front faces St. Peter's Road with a central wide gable flanked by hipped-roofed two-storey entrance porches. Behind this frontage, the octagonal main body of the church is set back. The gable contains a run of seven tall lancet windows with a broad band of terra cotta foliage work between the glazing of the ground and first floors. A large rose window occupies the gable apex. The upper fenestration continues left and right into the upper parts of the porches, though alternate openings are left blank. On the ground floor either side of the gable are doorways with moulded arches and slightly projecting gables. The upper fenestration extends around the porch sides with wider-spaced lancets below. All glazing consists of very small panes of tinted glass set in leaded lights.

The sides of the church feature buttresses supporting the central space, with pairs of tall two-light windows. Similar, shorter windows appear on the canted sides of the octagon. The massive octagonal roof rises above, ending in a finial. To the left of the church's left side are further lancets across two floors, followed by a two-storey gabled porch element with a triple lancet over an arched doorway containing a pair of part-glazed doors and glazed surround. The schools building is attached to the left of this porch.

Schools Exterior

The schools are two storeys with an attic. A wide central gable displays two storeys of a four-window range of mullion and transom windows with leaded lights in tinted glass. A raised band between the storeys carries a cut brick inscription reading 'THE ROBERT WALKER MEMORIAL SCHOOLS'. The attic gable features a large rose window with timber openwork to the sides and apex, supported on moulded brackets. Lower aisle-like ends project either side; the left end contains an entrance doorway with ornamental tympanum and glazed doors. At attic level on both sides are long clerestories of continuous mullioned windows with leaded light glazing (the one facing Earl Howe Street is boarded in). Below these are taller mullion and transom windows. Facing Earl Howe Street is a gabled projection to the right with a circular window in the gable surrounded by timber openwork. To the left is a small projecting wing with an entrance in a lean-to porch. Behind these frontages are classrooms extending around the church, surrounding a small yard.

Church Interior

The large impressive interior space features galleries on three sides, supported on iron columns. Pine pews are fitted both in the galleries and below. A central preaching and officers platform stands with choir seating behind. Stained glass fills the east and west rose windows, and the impression of light from the many large windows filled with tinted glass is a striking feature. Above rises a massive roof structure of elaborate timber work. Many other rooms survive with contemporary detailing intact.

Schools Interior

A large hall with gallery to three sides on iron columns; a recent false ceiling has been introduced. Numerous classrooms survive, including one with a fireplace and panelled surround.

This is a very impressive and finely detailed group of buildings with many internal features remaining.