Masonic Hall Buildings (Occupied By National Westminster Bank And Prudential Insurance)

Masonic Hall Buildings, occupied by National Westminster Bank and Prudential Insurance, were constructed around 1860 by G Bidlake of Wolverhampton. The building was funded by £3,000 from the London and North Western Railway Company, which had committed to building a railway that would avoid Sutton Park under the threat of a £20,000 penalty. Designed in a polychromatic Venetian Gothic style, the structure is made of brick, stone, and tiles and was formerly the Town Hall. It features two storeys with pointed arched windows that have two and three lights, supported by stone colonettes. The building has a stone-capped plinth, patterned tiled bands, and window aprons. A corbelled string course runs along the first floor, topped by an eaves cornice. The low-pitched hipped roof is covered with Welsh slate. Notable elements include a first-floor window at the south corner that sits above a canted ground floor, and a three-light bay window with stone colonettes on the south front, adjacent to a tower porch that projects forward. The porch has flush quoins and a carved tympanum above the pointed arched doorway, which is accessed by steps.