Uppingham Cricket Pavilion

Uppingham Cricket Pavilion

Cricket pavilion built in 1923 to the designs of Sir Walter John Tapper.

The building is rendered and painted white, presumably covering brick, with stone dressings and a thatched roof. It is located on the north-west corner of The Upper and has a U-shaped plan comprising a long central range and short crosswings.

The pavilion is designed in a picturesque Arts and Crafts style as a single-storey building. It features a prominent hipped roof with a scalloped ridge and a central cupola with a circular thatched roof surmounted by a weather vane. The north-west elevation contains the principal entrance beneath a central gable with a date stone of 1923 in the gable head. The eight-panel wooden door has raised rails and stiles and is flanked by casement windows in wooden frames filled with square leaded lights and wooden sills. Above these openings runs a continuous wooden lintel chamfered at the top. To either side of the door is a row of six mullion windows with square leaded lights but without sills or lintels. This fenestration is followed on both sides by a plank and batten door with a small octagonal glazed opening. At each end of the façade are three smaller square windows, with an additional window on the left side. The north-east gable end is lit by a three-light mullion window, followed by a small top-opening casement and a door of vertical panels with long strap hinges. The south-west gable end is similar except that the front door and small windows are later replacements.

At either end of the south-east elevation are the projecting gable ends of the short crosswings. These are lit by two pairs of three-light mullions in stone surrounds. The central double-leaf panelled doors have glazed upper panels filled with leaded lights, with a small tiled canopy over the doorway added later. Above this, a triangular gable with plain wooden bargeboards and a clock within the gable head is positioned wholly within the roof space. It originally formed a small balcony with a score board but this has since been blocked up. Flanking the central bay are four-light mullions in stone surrounds. The original wooden railings of the verandah project from each corner of the pavilion.

The interior retains much of the original fixtures, fittings and joinery, including decorative window ironmongery, the lock plate on the inner face of the front door with its pierced decorative edging, and plank and batten doors with strap hinges in the subsidiary areas. The principal room in the long range has a canted ceiling with delicate raised plasterwork of foliate designs. The room is lined with square panelling with moulded edges and two panelled doors at either end. Many of the panels are inscribed in gold lettering with the names of cricket teams dating back to 1856. Some individual players recorded went on to become highly successful and well-known cricketers, such as Percy Chapman (1900-1961) who captained the England cricket team between 1926 and 1931, and Jonathan Agnew MBE (born 1960), the cricket broadcaster and former professional cricketer. At the north-east end the panels incorporate shaped frames containing photographs of previous captains, and there are three mounted bats and a ball of particular historic significance. The doors at each end of the principal room lead into subsidiary rooms, including two cloakrooms which retain the original wooden bench lockers along three of the walls.

The entrance gates at the north-west corner of the site are double-leaf wooden gates consisting of two lower panels with uprights above and an arched rail with wide strap hinges. The gates are flanked by a pair of tall square piers of stone ashlar with shallow plinths and moulded caps.