Ralli Memorial Hall, Walls And Railings

The Ralli Memorial Hall, walls, and railings form a community centre built in 1913. Designed by Read and Macdonald of London for Mrs Stephen Ralli, and constructed by Chapman, Lowry and Puttock, the building is a notable example of the Wrenaissance style.

The hall is built of red brick in English bond, with a hipped clay tile roof, strongly moulded wooden dentil cornice, and brick stacks. It stands on an L-shaped plan, fronting Denmark Villas with an extended assembly hall facing Station Approach. The front elevation has two storeys over a basement, arranged with a 1:3:1 bay composition. Projecting end bays feature pilaster quoins and drops instead of capitals under hipped roofs with shallow pediments to the oriel windows, all with mullion and transom windows containing leaded lights. A central oriel provides access to a balcony above a hexagonal porch, flanked by mullion and transom casements and garlands enclosing the date "AD 1913". The ground floor features segmental-headed casements below the oriels. A projecting Ionic porch extends for three bays and recedes for another three, incorporating three pairs of 12-light double doors with shaped heads, approached by a shallow flight of three steps. An ornamental cartouche sits in the centre of the solid parapet to the balcony. Ornamental hoppers are attached to the square-section downpipes.

To the north, the return elevation has a 2:1:6:2 bay arrangement, with a dentil-moulded cornice extending around a circular window above the entrance in the third bay from the left. The buttressed hall features 6-light mullion and transom windows. A plaque in the central bay is inscribed with the text: "This stone was laid by Stephen Andrew Ralli grandson of Stephen Ralli in memory of whom this hall was erected by his wife 14 April 1913."

Brick piers with moulded plinths and coping, topped with ball finials, run along the inner bays, returning south and north to the entrance on Station Road. The piers support wrought-iron railings set within a low dwarf wall, and continue along the north elevation. The building is considered a fine and well-composed example of its type.