The Mildmay Social Club including front boundary walls, railings and lamp posts

The Mildmay Social Club

A working men's club built in 1900-1901, possibly incorporating fabric from earlier houses on the site, designed by Alfred Allen, with a later extension to the east. The building is listed at Grade II.

The structure consists of three distinct parts arranged around a rectangular plan fronting Matthias Road. The principal range to the south comprises three storeys plus basement, connected via a two-storey link block to a large two-storey northern range with a pitched roof.

The principal elevation to the south displays a loose Queen Anne style in eight bays of red brick laid in English bond with yellow stock brick to the side and rear. It features a rubbed brick frieze between the first and second storeys, a stone cornice and stone bottle balustrade. The five western bays are topped with a hipped roof crowned by an octagonal cupola, now lacking its original copper domed roof and glazing. The central entrance bay projects beneath a stone pediment. The three eastern bays are slightly recessed under a flat roof. A rubbed brick segmental arch marks a goods entrance at the eastern end, now fitted with a metal roller shutter. The main entrance has a stucco surround with pilasters and an oversized segmental pediment, approached via a blue and white chequered tile pavement. Above the entrance is a tripartite window in a segmental opening. Fenestration is mostly replacement uPVC windows in square-headed openings with rubbed brick lintels, keystones and aprons and stone sills.

The side and rear elevations are of yellow stock brick, rendered on the southern range's blind side. Fenestration consists mainly of replacement uPVC windows, some with security bars, in square-headed openings with gauged brick lintels and stone sills. Ground floor windows on the eastern elevation of the northern hall range have been infilled with modern brickwork. The rear elevation of the northern range retains original mixed timber sash and casement windows on the upper floor. The western elevation is blind, while the link block's western elevation is clad in white faience tiling.

Materials throughout comprise red brick frontage with stone and rubbed brick dressings. Pitched roofs are of slate, the majority repaired with man-made slates. Fenestration is mainly uPVC replacements with some original timber sashes. Concrete stairs are a later addition.

The ground floor of the southern range contains a central north-south entrance corridor with two staff rooms to the west and a games lounge (perhaps originally a reading room or library) to the east. The entrance retains its original six-panel double doors, leading to a small lobby with a modern glazed screen beyond which is the main entrance hall with late-20th century finishes and suspended ceiling, containing a porter's room and a wooden members' board. The staff rooms retain elements of original cornices and dado mouldings. The games lounge has late-20th century decorative finishes and suspended ceiling. The first floor contains a small hall with original fireplace surrounds, and the second floor comprises staff accommodation, now three flats accessed from an east-west corridor, refitted and partitioned in the 1970s, retaining two original fireplace surrounds, one tiled in 1930s style, some original skirting and original four-panel doors.

The link block contains a large bar area on the ground floor with late-20th century suspended ceiling, decorative finishes and a mirrored bar-back counter, supported on square pillars. The first floor entrance lobby to the main hall has late-20th century finishes and matchboard panelling. Historic photographs show this area originally featured a pitched skylight roof supported on arched braces set on corbels, chequered tile flooring and decorative glazed tiling to dado height, though it is uncertain if these features survive beneath later finishes. A large wooden memorial panel survives above the stair, truncated by the suspended ceiling. The second floor contains ladies WCs and a small bar for the main hall.

The northern range houses a large snooker hall on the ground floor fitted with nine snooker tables, its ceiling supported on five steel beams. A suspended four-sided clock probably dating from the 1930s, apparently installed just after the Second World War, hangs from the ceiling. Walls are lined with cue racks and feature wall-mounted gas lights, with ceiling-mounted gas lights in one of the side rooms. Doors and architraves are largely original. The snooker tables originally stood on chequer tiled bases, now lost. The first floor contains the main hall or theatre with a stage at the northern end and a disused gallery to the south. The original boarded ceiling with metal trusses survives above a late-20th century suspended mansard ceiling. The side walls, finished with late-20th century dado-height panelling, feature pilasters originally supporting a decorative cornice. Blind arches between pilasters originally contained murals of historical subjects; these have been infilled and openings made to later rooms on the eastern side, but their outline remains and murals may survive beneath. The hall originally had fixed theatre seating, now removed and replaced with a 20th century wooden dance floor. A small bar with late-20th century fittings occupies the south-west corner. The later eastern extension contains disused private rooms, stage workshop and a disused balcony at the southern end.

The front boundary wall is of red brick with stone capping consisting of alternating piers and railing panels, topped with an oversized ball finial to the east pier. The entrance is flanked by a pair of cast iron lamp posts.