Livesey Memorial Hall

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 02/11/2018

TQ 3672 779-/31/10050

PERRY HILL

Livesey Memorial Hall

II

Recreation Hall, built in 1911 by SY Shoubridge, Engineer to the South Suburban Gas Company, for the Company’s employees.

MATERIALS: London stock brick (made by the Gas Company) on concrete foundations with Burmantoft terracotta dressings. Red-tiled hipped roof with gablets to the ends, containing occuli, and finials. The building retains its original small-paned, clear-glazed windows.

PLAN: single-storey 'E' plan on a north/south alignment, with a central projecting porch to the west. The western central projection has been partly obscured by an extension, erected as an ‘all-gas’ kitchen, and in place by 1936.

EXTERIOR: the single-storey building is of ten bays, the two central bays being defined by a pediment with an oculus, above the entrance porch. The square, double-arched porch is reached by a short flight of steps. The entrance doors are of hardwood with six panels hung folding in two leaves, with a semi-circular fanlight above, set within a red-brick round-headed surround. A terracotta balustrade runs between the porch’s comer piers, which are topped with pierced urn-like finials in Jacobean style. A large faience panel between the arches and balustrade depicts a beige banner framed by stems of acanthus and pomegranate on a green ground. Raised letters in oxblood announce the 'LIVESEY MEMORIAL HALL.' The pedimented end bays project slightly, each one containing a Venetian window. Doric pilasters divide the other bays, each of which has a rectangular window set in a round-headed terracotta surround. The rear elevation has a similar arrangement of pilasters and windows, though partly concealed by the later single-storey flat-roofed extension.

INTERIOR: the large hall has a raised stage at the south end with a basket-arched proscenium arch, embellished with pendentives and framed by piers with clasping pilasters. The coved ceiling has mouldings creating compartments; there is a classical cornice and pilasters divide the walls into bays. The billiard room and reading room to the right now form an open bar area. Some panelling survives.

Listing NGR: TQ3655172102