Queen'S Park Meeting Hall

Queen’s Park Meeting Hall is a recreation and meeting hall built between 1883 and 1884. Designed by Rowland Plumbe for the Artizans, Labourers and General Dwellings Company, it demonstrates a style transitional between Gothic and Queen Anne. The building is constructed of red brick with a pitched, tiled roof and comprises a first-floor double-height hall above ground-floor shops, with a main entrance located beneath a tower on the Harrow Road. The tower is square at its base, rising to an octagonal section topped with a tiled pyramidal spire. The hall itself is gabled, featuring a pair of tall pointed windows on the Harrow Road elevation; ornamental cut brickwork appears in the gable, with panels positioned above the window heads. A decorative terracotta panel displays the Company name. The return front facing First Avenue is divided into five bays, exhibiting tall single pointed windows separated by buttresses above the shop piers. A subsidiary entrance and gable are present at the north end.

Inside, the hall features a fine timber hammerbeam roof and a stage at the north end, incorporating a mural depicting artisans at work within the spandrel above. A gallery is located at the south end. The hall was initially built as a social centre for the Queen’s Park Cottage Estate, intended for meetings, non-alcoholic refreshments, entertainment, and education, with shops below designed for the benefit and profit of the community. It is considered a landmark within this pioneering philanthropic housing estate.