The Gymnasium To North Of North Road

This is an open-air ball-court and fives court, constructed around 1840 as part of the foundation of Prior Park College by Bishop Baines. The project was patronized by Rev. James Baines and designed by HE Goodridge. The building is built into a quarry, its main level situated below adjacent terrace tennis courts.

The structure consists of a long, narrow two-story range facing a large courtyard, with a high boundary wall and a taller fives wall on the east side. The west-facing single-story elevation features a central Palladian opening flanked by two wide, rectangular openings and a small door leading to a staircase that accesses a roof terrace. The building has a prominent plinth, a bold platband cornice, a blocking course, and a parapet, all consistently applied to all facades. A short north return has a blocked opening. The interior face is characterised by a row of thirteen arches with an impost band, two blind and eleven open, above a colonnade of twelve substantial Tuscan columns with end responds. A full-width recessed panel sits between the levels, and the arch impost band continues as a coping to the long side walls. The south side wall has suffered extensive damage, while the north side has been reduced to accommodate the higher surrounding earth level, creating a drop of approximately 2.5 metres to the courtyard level. The east wall rises to approximately 5.75 metres with a heavy square coping, with the side walls swept upwards to meet a lower, centrally positioned dividing wall, stopped to a square pier and also swept up to the rear wall. The exterior of the east wall displays a random pattern of putlog holes.

The lower floor of the pavilion retains a partial barrel vault and screens of two columns at each end. The upper floor originally contained three rooms with finely cut barrel vaults remaining beneath the terrace roof, with an iron stair balustrade at the south end. The building was in poor condition and disused at the time of assessment.

Historically, this highly unusual and dramatically scaled structure reflects Bishop Baines's vision for the college. It is considered among the most grandiose, albeit unfinished, of rackets courts and was later used as a poultry yard in the 19th century. Its imposing and austere masonry combines elements of Wood's Palladianism with French-inspired neoclassicism.