The Drill Hall

FAVERSHAM PRESTON STREET TR 0161 SE 3/329 The Drill Hall GV II

Assembly rooms, now used as drill hall. Circa 1849 by Martin Bulmer, Architect and Thomas Ware builder. Flemish bond stock brick, stuccoed at front. Low- pitched hipped slate roof, with gable at rear. Rendered stack on right hand side with moulded cornice. Plan: Rectangular plan assembly room 54' long by 28'6" wide with a gallery at the front-and a porch on the right hand side entered from the front. Exterior: Single storey. Symmetrical 3-bay front to the assembly room with a porch set back slightly on the right, both with deep moulded eaves cornices, rusticated stucco quoins and moulded plinths. The 3-bay assembly room to the left has 3 large windows each with moulded eaved architraves, moulded sills and later casements. The porch set back on right has a wide doorway with a moulded architrave and C19 moulded and panelled double doors. The right hand side of the porch has 12-pane sashes. The left hand side abuts on adjoining building. At the rear there are 2 small round-headed louvred windows high up in the gable. Interior: is largely intact. Around the walls a moulded plinth and paired pilasters with plaster console brackets supporting the ceiling. The moulded ceiling cornice might survive above the existing ceiling. The 3 octagonal lanterns have lost their original glazing and the cornices around their drums are later replacements. The balcony has a cast-iron balustrade and panelled double doors below. At the opposite end there is a doorway with panelled double doors in a moulded architrave with a cornice and panel above in an eaved architrave Note: The original assembly rooms in Faversham were in Market Street. They were superceded in 1839 by a suite of rooms on the present site which were destroyed by fire in 1848 and replaced by the existing building in circa 1849. Sources: The Faversham Society possesses relevant documents. Faversham Institute Journal. Country Life 1.9.86 pp 766-8.

Listing NGR: TR0153661105