Assembly Rooms

The Assembly Rooms were built between 1776 and 1778 and were extended in 1817 by William Newham. The building features a pantile roof and red brick walls, with stucco used for the 1817 extension.

The structure is roughly rectangular and faces south-east towards Market Place. It is a single-storey building with a hipped pantile roof on the original 1770s section, which is accessed from the south-west, and a shallow, pitched pantile roof on the 1817 section, accessed from the south-east. The 1770s range is made of red brick laid in Flemish bond. The central three bays of this range originally projected forward but were rebuilt in the 1950s, while the outer bays still display original brickwork and a dentil eaves course. This façade features a central double door with six panels divided into four parts, along with five bays of windows above. The windows have gauged skewback arches, stone sills, and six-over-six timber sash windows without horns; the central three bays have segmental arches.

The south-east front, added in 1817, is also single-storey and five bays wide, featuring a plain parapet and stucco walls. The gables on the north-east and south-west sides are inflex-arched and topped with urn-like chimney pots. The rightmost bay of the south-east elevation includes a 20th-century double door with eight panels beneath a five-vaned fanlight and within a rusticated arch. The four left bays contain late-19th-century two-light casements set within early-19th-century moulded surrounds with hoods.

Inside, the south door opens into a wide entrance passageway that leads to a reception room at right angles. There are three doorways with lugged surrounds, and the south windows also feature lugged internal surrounds. The interior has a suspended 20th-century ceiling. Three folding doors connect to the main assembly room, which is illuminated by five west-facing windows that have arched internal surrounds. This main room also has a suspended 20th-century ceiling and includes a gallery at the north end.