St Georges Church Hall

1157/0/10082 PINNER VIEW 08-FEB-06 St George's Church Hall

II Church hall. 1928-29. Architect: Cyril Arthur Farey. MATERIALS: Red brick laid in English bond; stretcher bond to entrance block. First floor painted render; clay tile roof. PLAN: Principally 2 storeys with mezzanine level leading to balcony, and third storey within rear part of roofspace. Main stair in entrance block. Central corridor with classrooms to either side leads to small hall at rear. First floor: large hall. Caretaker's flat to rear. A small extension on the north side contains a secondary staircase and entrance to the flat. EXTERIOR: Eclectic neo-Georgian style with some Art Deco features. Front elevation: symmetrical with projecting 2-storey entrance block with stepped brickwork to parapets. Entrance recessed behind rebated piers. Glazed timber panelled doors with rectangular fanlight; sash windows with flat gauged-brick arches. Recessed central balcony to upper floor with French windows and wrought-iron guard-rail with central panel of intersecting circles. Gable is expressed as a broken-base pediment and has a central segmental-headed tripartite window with Art Deco mullions projecting above the arch. Side elevations: square-headed 12-over-12 pane sash windows to ground floor set in round-headed openings with slightly pointed gauged-brick arches with keystones. String course below cill level of first-floor windows continuing around the rear; above this level the walls are rendered. Casement windows to upper floor arranged in form of a clerestorey; pivoting central sections. Rear elevation: round-headed sash windows to ground floor alternated with narrow rectangular sash windows; metal casement windows to upper floors. Pitched roof with deep eaves. INTERIOR: Ground floor: original doors mainly with three vertical panels; rectangular fanlights. Large classroom on south side divided by folding timber partition. Staircases with solid concrete balustrades. First floor: main hall roof constructed of a series of segmental curved steel trusses, encased. Raised stage with shouldered surround to proscenium arch. Soffit of roof close boarded with sliding ventilation panels. HISTORY: Cyril Farey FRIBA(1888-1954), was better known as a consummate perspectivist and water colourist. With William Walcot, he dominated in this field in the inter-war years. He was frequently commissioned to produce sketches and water colours of the designs of leading architects of the time, including Lutyens. SOURCES: Gavin Stamp, The Great Perspectivists; Obituary to Cyril Farey, The Builder, December 17 1954 EVALUATION OF IMPORTANCE: A well-preserved and distinctive example of an inter-war parish hall, designed by a renowned architectural perspectivist.