Burslem Market Hall

Burslem Market Hall

A market hall with shops and offices built in 1879 and designed by E M Richards, the Burslem Board Engineer and Surveyor. The brick and stonework were constructed by Messrs H and R Inskip of Longton, and the roof by Messrs Hill and Smith of Brierley Hill.

The building is roughly rectangular in plan, orientated north to south, with a front elevation of shop fronts facing Queen Street to the south which extends beyond the width of the main hall to both east and west. The structure is built of red brick in Flemish bond with rendered stone detailing, patent glazing, and an iron roof, with timber doors and windows.

The hall is spanned by a pitched patent glazing roof with parapet gables to north and south. The south gable abuts the rear slope of the pitched tiled roof covering the shops to the front. The shops' roof runs at right angles to the hall roof with gables to east and west. The roof to the shops features a brick chimney stack at either end and a further four stacks across the ridge, with a seventh stack centrally in the north slope of the roof.

The principal elevation faces south to Queen Street and is symmetrical at first-floor level, where it is divided into nine bays by tall pointed-arch windows. Ground floor level does not follow this symmetry: a large central shop front occupies two bays, while other bays have either a single shop front and door or a single door up to the offices (now flats) and double doors through to the market hall. All ground floor bays except the central, largest shop front are enclosed within a broad rendered stone arch surround. These arch surrounds are very gently pointed, almost round, except for the two over the entrance passages through to the hall which would rise to a sharp point within the cill of the first floor windows had they not been truncated by a chamfered stone cornice running continuously along the building at first floor cill level.

The jambs of the arch surrounds are indented to accommodate short columns with carved foliate capitals and shafts of polished granite. The capitals carry a cornice from which springs a simple concentric moulding to the base of the stone arch surround. Where the short cornice continues between the columns either side of neighbouring arches, it is embellished with a carved diamond both above and below, except where space has been left to accommodate down pipes.

A stone platband marking the division between ground and first floors runs the length of the building above the crown of the rounder ground floor arched surrounds. This platband is crossed at right-angles by vertical stone bands which rise in line above the jambs of the pointed arches over the two entrance doors through to the hall and the doorway of the larger central shop front.

The smaller shopfronts have stallrisers, all in blue brick except that in the archway immediately east of the large central shop unit, which has one in red brick. The smaller shops each have a single doorway set back from the street with mosaic tiling in front of it and a window to the side. The glazing is either one single large window or two windows, one with a single large pane and the other divided by transoms. Above the shop windows are friezes for signage, with the head of the arch above filled with multi-paned windows. The arches enclosing the entrances lack a frieze but have windows above the doors to fill the head of the arch.

The larger central shopfront has fluted pilasters to its sides, two large window panes with a transom over to the west, then curved transom windows either side of a doorway to the east with black and white checked tiles in front of the door. Above the window is a frieze which steps up to a higher central section.

At first-floor level, the nine bays take the form of a recessed panel between pilasters with dentil detailing at their tops. Three of the bays are narrower and six wider, with the narrower bays corresponding with the entrance passageways and door to the large central shopfront, and the wider bays corresponding with the standard size shopfronts below. The windows within the bays have 10 lights divided by a single mullion and four transoms, with the top pair of lights arched to fit the window head. These appear to be late 20th-century replacements. The windows are in deep reveals set back two stepped brick lengths from the plane of the wall. The surrounds over the window heads are in stone, following the jamb of the window down to join a platband which links all the windows at the level of their third transom up from the bottom. Below the eaves is another plain stone platband. Each window has an iron balcony fixed below and above the cornice which acts as a cill.

The east side elevation is exposed only at the end of Keates Street where in a lean-to porch there is a double door in a pointed arch surround. The west elevation is abutted by surrounding properties. The rear, north elevation to Market Passage is brick rendered to look like stone blockwork, solid except for a pair of double doors in a pointed-arch surround.

The interior features two entrance corridors through to the hall from Queen Street. The main hall is one open space spanned by the patent glazing roof with stone flag floors. Pairs of stalls under large arches line both east and west sides of the hall, some retaining shop signs and decorative and lettered glazing.

The roof is supported by five curved trusses in riveted wrought iron which cross the whole of the hall from east to west. These trusses are supported by pairs of cast iron columns which are joined by their decorated capitals. The roof trusses spring from the front capitals, while the rear capitals support round arches over boarded-over windows to the storage areas above the stalls on the east and west sides of the hall. The spandrels of the trusses are decorated with floral designs within circular borders.

The north wall of the hall has six pointed-arched recessed panels. Below the second from the west of these panels is a double-height enclosed porch housing steps up to the doors to the main entrance on Market Passage. In the third arch from the east is an inscribed stone commemorating the opening of the Market Hall in 1879. Some later stalls have been added against this north wall.

The ground floor level of the south elevation is the backs of the Queen Street shops. It is irregularly divided by pilasters and panels which correspond with those of the Queen Street shop units which align with the hall. The spaces between the pilasters have windows and panelled doors, mostly blocked, some with shop signs. The eastern and westernmost sections contain doorways through to Queen Street. At first floor level are five symmetrically arranged large three-over-two sash windows.