Premises Occupied By Ymca Youth Centre

The premises occupied by the YMCA Youth Centre, located at 1671 St Peter's Hill, date from around 1840 and are two storeys high. The building features an elaborate classical front made of ashlar stone, with a channelled rusticated ground floor. The upper floor has three full-length windows with hung sashes that include glazing bars, set within shouldered architraves topped with a frieze and cornice. There is a moulded band between the storeys that breaks forward into a pediment adorned with modillions, above an inset door with four panels, a rectangular fanlight, and an exaggerated batten. The ground floor has two recessed round-arched windows with keystones. Above the moulded cornice, there is an attic storey featuring lion masks and a parapet with two groups of balusters and one plain panel. The building originally had a cupola and was built as the Stamford Institution or Camera Obscura House, possibly designed by architect Edward Browning. The YMCA Youth Centre at No 7 and No 10 form a group with this building.