Newbury Arts Centre The Temperance Hall (Now Used As Newbury Arts Centre)

The Temperance Hall, now used as Newbury Arts Centre, was built around 1859 in a Gothic style. It is a remodelling of five old cottages that were previously used by the Blue Coat Charity School. The building is two storeys high with a gabled, symmetrical front facing the road. It features a tiled roof with coped gables topped by a tall iron wind vane. The structure is made of red brick with freestone dressings, and it has arched openings with keystones and hoods, as well as windows with glazing bars. The central doorway includes a fanlight and a panelled door, and there is a stone plaque above the entrance inscribed 'Temperance Hall'. Additionally, four tablets at plinth level bear the inscriptions: 'Wine is a mocker', 'Strong drink is raging', 'It stingeth like an adder', and 'The drunkard shall come to poverty'. Currently, the hall is used as a store. The Blue Coat Charity School adapted the existing cottages on this site for educational purposes when it moved here around 1722 from the Cloth Hall. The school operated at this location until about 1859, when the St Nicholas (National) School was established on Enmore Road. The building is listed for its historical and sociological significance.