Mistley Institute

Mistley Institute

A village institute built in 1911 to designs by WD Caröe, executed in the Arts and Crafts style.

The building is constructed of red brick laid in English bond with roughcast render and red brick and tile creasing dressings. The roughcast render on the front elevation and front and side of the cross wings has been replaced with smooth render. The roof is covered in red clay tiles with bonnet tiles at the hips.

The Institute has an approximately rectangular plan, consisting of a main hall with two adjoining cross wings on the south-east side containing the kitchen, office and services. A rear extension built during the Second World War is excluded from the listing.

The single-storey building sits on a brick plinth and features a row of three angled chimney stacks with brick caps rising between the cross wings. The principal north-west elevation shows the gable end of the hall, lit by a large eight-light segmental arched window with wooden transom and three mullions with wooden glazing bars. The window has a brick sill and a lintel formed of radiating tile creasing, set within a brick panel that extends almost full-height except for the gable head, which contains a louvred ventilation opening. To the left is a brick entrance porch with hipped roof and segmental arched opening, containing a recessed double-leaf door with a single panel on the lower half and four panels above.

To the left of the porch, the recessed cross wings are lower than the hall and have hipped roofs. The fenestration consists mostly of wooden casements with central mullions and wooden glazing bars, with tiled sills and a row of brick headers underneath. The front of the north-west cross wing has a single casement, its return wall a double casement. The adjoining south-east cross wing has a triple casement on the front and a single casement and uPVC window on the rear elevation. The south-east elevation of the hall features a projecting brick porch under a hipped roof with a double-leaf door in the same style as the front entrance. To the right of the door is a single casement; to the left is a short double casement set within a deep recess with a segmental brick arch. The long north-west elevation of the hall has five segmental arched recesses, creating the impression of division by buttresses, each lit by double casements. The gable end repeats the window described on the front.

Internally, the porch opens into a small polygonal apsidal hall with a herringbone brick floor and exposed brick walls. Original coat pegs and a moulded wooden cornice remain. A small office to the left of the porch, not available for inspection, is said to contain an original fireplace. The main hall on the right has a canted ceiling with purlins at each angle, divided into five bays by arched braces resting on jowled posts. The hall is clad in late twentieth-century vertical panels up to the height of a wooden band at door lintel height. A stage at the south-west end has been removed, revealing some original stained wood panelling. The hall retains a herringbone parquet floor, two gas light fittings, moulded door frames and doors with single lower panels and glazed panels above. In the second bay on the left is a wide inglenook with segmental brick arch, lined with edge-laid tiles. The cross wings contain a kitchen with modern fittings and services. Two doors at the rear end of the hall lead to a mid-twentieth-century extension not included in the listing.