Rifle Hall

Rifle Hall

The Rifle Hall in Halesworth is built of orange and red brick with stone dressings. The late 18th-century phase is laid in Flemish bond, while the late 19th-century extension to the front is laid in English bond. The gable roof is covered in Welsh slate. The building has a rectangular plan with additions to the north and south.

The principal Bottle and Olley façade features stone bands and quoins. At ground floor level is a central entrance door, partly glazed with geometric designs to the lower panels and approached by three stone steps. Above the door is a skylight with a shallow-arched head under a flat stone canopy with a frieze and cornice supported on consoles. On either side are three-light windows with stone transoms and shallow-arched heads. Above these is a large five-light window with leaded lights and glazing bars, stone transoms and a shallow-arched head. A stone cartouche in the gable apex is carved with the dates 1862 and 1892 and surrounded by simple swag and scroll details. The rear elevation is plain but has a corresponding five-light window with stone transoms, lighting the hall. The north elevation has one late 19th-century two-light window with stone details; all other openings are 20th-century insertions. A chimney stack lies to the rear. The south elevation is largely obscured by later extensions; one buttress is exposed and the fenestration and openings are 20th century in date. The roof has catslides over the rear extensions to the north and south and has a centrally-placed metal cupola. Twentieth-century flat-roofed single-storey extensions have been added to the south elevation and one small extension to the north. The forecourt is enclosed by a low brick wall.

The interior has no remaining features pertaining to its use as an 18th-century theatre or mid 19th-century drill hall. Openings have been inserted into the north and south walls to access later extensions. In the late 19th-century extension to the front, there is a first-floor gallery, which has been enclosed, overlooking the main hall. The walls have plank panelling decorated with linear and geometric motifs, the same panelling extending along the lower portion of the roof. This serves as a backdrop for the substantial timber hammer-beam roof structure of 1862, which is obscured by the hall's false ceiling. Some late 19th-century doors with geometric designs and joinery details remain.

The building was constructed as a theatre in 1792 by Joseph Hounslow from Bedford, an actor-manager of a touring company. Between 1812 and 1844, the theatre was run by David Fisher, described as a comedian from Swaffham, who owned a peripatetic company touring a circuit of theatres in East Anglia including the Fisher Theatre in Bungay. The repertoire took two years to tour the region, with Halesworth having an autumn season lasting about ten weeks every other year; the company was successful with links to the London stage. In 1844, the theatre was put up for auction; the sales particulars described it as a spacious brick-built and tiled building of about 66 feet by 40 feet with boxes, stage, gallery, dressing rooms and fittings. Its use is uncertain between 1844 and 1862, after which it was used as a volunteer infantry drill hall for the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. The Commanding Officer of the volunteers, Andrew Johnston, had recently died and the late Captain's family converted the theatre into a drill hall, renaming it the Rifle Hall in memoriam and presenting it to the town. The building was remodelled at this time when the roof structure was replaced, the existing west window was inserted and an entrance façade with a gabled porch was constructed. The rear outshot at the north elevation may date to this period. In 1892, the building was extended and re-fronted to the design of Bottle and Olley at a cost of £689. The new entrance hall had a gallery and rooms over it. It is possible that the side extensions to the rear, under catslide roofs, were added at this time.

The Rifle Hall was used for drill practice until 1930, after which it was in use as a public hall and has remained so to the present day. Further extensions have been added to the south and north elevations.