Powell Hall At Sedbergh School

Powell Hall at Sedbergh School is a school assembly hall combined with classrooms, built between 1904 and 1906 by the architectural firm Paley & Austin. The building is constructed from snecked sandstone with freestone quoins and dressings, topped with a green slate roof. The hall is oriented on a north-south axis, featuring a narthex at the south end, a canted apse at the north end, and gabled classroom wings on the west side, all designed in a Perpendicular style.

The exterior showcases a tall single-storey hall alongside two-storey classroom wings. The gabled south front of the hall includes angle buttresses and gable coping with extended kneelers. It has a rectangular single-storey flat-roofed narthex with a doorway to the left and mullioned windows with arched lights. Above the narthex, the gable features cruciform fenestration, highlighted by a tall four-stage transomed window flanked by mullioned windows, all with arched lights. The east side has eight bays, distinguished by a Tudor-arched doorway in the first bay and a square-headed doorway in the fifth bay. This side also features three wide full-height canted oriel windows alternating with narrower bays that contain three-light mullioned clerestory windows, along with a string course and a high parapet running across the entire length. The north apse has buttresses, one of which incorporates a foundation stone dated 1904. All windows are fitted with leaded double-glazing in wooden frames. The classrooms on the west side consist of three linked gabled wings, with the northernmost wing projecting. Each wing features mullioned and transomed windows on both floors and is topped with a wooden cupola on the ridge.

Inside, the hall is impressive, featuring a north stage, a south gallery, a panelled dado, and a hammerbeam roof with enclosed coving. There are corridors leading to classrooms on both floors, with a staircase located at the north end. Powell Hall forms a group with the classroom block to the east and the War Memorial Cloister to the south.