Former Memorial Hall, Castilian Street, Northampton

Former Memorial Hall, Castilian Street, Northampton

This Memorial Hall was erected in 1921 by Alexander Ellis Anderson, a Scottish Baronial style building constructed in brick with a sandstone façade.

The building comprises a large two-storey hall accessed via a porch and lobby. The lobby provides access to lavatories, a kitchen, and stairs to the upper floor. The upper floor contains further lavatories and a recently constructed external balcony. A third floor, accessed from the adjacent number 17, comprises two recently constructed flats, whose interiors were not inspected.

The façade is five bays wide in Scottish Baronial style. The central entrance is flanked by two full-height conical roofed turrets and features a scrolled entablature inscribed "TO THE MEMORY / OF THE DEAD / FOR THE GOOD OF THOSE / FOR WHOM THEY DIED". The door case is inscribed with "Alex Anderson / Architect". Above the door is a window with a similar scrolled head-mould. This bay is surmounted by a crow-stepped gable inscribed with a laurel wreath encircling the initials "RPT" above the words "MEMORIAL / HALL".

To the south, a two-storey bay projects from the main façade, surmounted by a crow-stepped gable. The bay contains five leaded windows, three with stained glass elements. The centre of the gable projects forward and rests upon a pilaster descending to the top of the window. The foot of the pilaster is formed by a bunch of thistles supporting a shield carved with a lion rampant. The centre of the gable is inscribed "1914 / AD / 1918".

At the south end of the building stands a third conical roofed turret, two storeys in height, next to a plain door. The bays between the decorated sections comprise twin casement windows with stone mullions at ground and first floor levels, and single casements under scrolled dormers at second floor level. Ground and first floor windows are Crittall-type steel casements with Perspex secondary double glazing. Second floor windows are modern uPVC casements. The roof comprises graded slates.

Internally, the main hall is a square two-storey space. Entrance is through a pair of doors set between two fluted pilasters with dentilled capitals and a moulded entablature bearing the logo of the YWCA and a scroll inscribed "BY LOVE / SERVE ONE / ANOTHER".

The east wall contains a large bow window with leaded lights. The three central lights contain stained glass elements: the outer lights both contain a cross with a sun in the centre, while the central light contains a small coat of arms surmounted by the colours of the Northamptonshire Regiment. The stage has been replaced by a modern bar.

The hall has four first-floor balconies, one in each corner. The western pair at the rear are glazed, while the eastern pair at the front are accessed via circular stairwells inside two of the turrets (although the door to the southern turret has been blocked). The balconies are of sandstone. The internal walls are in red brick laid in Flemish bond. The south wall is formed by the former external wall of number 17 Castilian Street. The southwest corner now conceals a bricked-up doorway to number 17.

The hall has an artificial ceiling installed, concealing a steel joist, and a wooden parquet floor.