Business Design Centre

Business Design Centre

This building incorporates the symmetrical brick front of the former Royal Agricultural Hall facing Liverpool Road, with the hall itself behind it under an iron roof of single span. The front is dated 1862 on a central clock. The architect was F. Peck, with James Handyside and Company of Derby as engineers for the hall, and Hill Keddell and Robin as builders. Later alterations were made, notably by Cheston and Perkin. In 1985, the building was altered and renovated by Renton Howard Wood Levin Partnership as part of the Business Design Centre, with a new front entrance facing Upper Street.

The Liverpool Road front is constructed of yellow brick with dressings of red and white brick and stone. The roofs to the towers are of slate, with the remainder probably of fibreglass. The building stands at two storeys with a mezzanine, rising to three storeys at the towers.

The front elevation is arranged as a central composition with ranges of five windows set back to either side, then towers, then ranges of three windows set further back again. The walls are banded with red brick at several levels, including sill and springing bands, and window-heads are generally of gauged red brick.

The centrepiece contains three entrances flanked by superimposed pilasters and set under stilted segmental arches with heads of gauged red brick in which gauged white bricks create the effect of voussoirs. These have fanlights and panelled doors of original design. Above is a moulded brick storey band, followed by a recessed panel and six small flat-arched windows to the mezzanine level. All of this sits beneath a giant round arch flanked by superimposed piers, the arch itself formed of gauged red brick with voussoirs in white brick. A modillion cornice and parapet surmount this, with a central aedicule containing a clock under a round arch of gauged red brick.

The five-window ranges flanking the centrepiece have flat-arched entrances with 'ENTRANCE' inscribed in a segmental-arched panel above, and narrow round-arched windows to the ground floor with a moulded springing band of red brick. Stucco sill and storey bands (possibly originally of red brick) sit above and below small flat-arched mezzanine windows. First-floor windows are round-arched and set back under massive heads of gauged red brick, with a stucco springing band, stucco cornice, and parapet above.

The towers have blank walls to ground-floor level, with a decorative grille to the mezzanine between a band of red brick and stucco. Two small round-arched windows appear at first-floor level, sitting above a storey band set at cornice level of the neighbouring range. Two tall two-light round-arched windows with elaborate moulded springing bands, keystones, and heads of gauged red brick rise above a moulded stucco sill band. The centre of each side projects forward over these windows and is crowned with a bracketed pediment at cornice level. The towers terminate in curved pyramidal roofs in the manner of a French pavilion, each topped with a cast-iron openwork crown and finial.

The outer wings each have a broad segmental-arched carriage entrance to the centre flanked by two round-arched windows, with a stucco storey band, and three round-arched windows to the first floor, all set back in round-arched panels. Original metal glazing bars generally survive. An early 20th-century range has been added to the north-west corner.

Interior: The central space of the hall survives, measuring thirteen bays long and six bays wide. Cast-iron columns with four brackets in place of capitals support the structure of both the aisles and the central hall. The latter is roofed with metal trusses forming round arches and having decorative openwork in cast iron at their feet and their apex. The structure of the aisles is now partly obscured, though the arrangement of circle, semi-circle, and cross-panel survives in the gallery at a level with the springing of the main roof arches, with decorative cast-iron panels forming the balustrade. A late 20th-century fibreglass roof and fibreglass facing to the tympana at either end have been added.