The John Whinnerah Institute Building With Gate Piers To Front And Bicycle Shed In Rear Wall

The John Whinnerah Institute Building with Gate Piers to Front and Bicycle Shed in Rear Wall

An educational institute for women, completed in 1937 and opened on 27 October 1938. The building was designed by architect John Charles to house Barrow Women's Institute and a Junior Instruction Centre, both previously in temporary premises. It was built following the 1934 Unemployment Act, which led to the construction of instruction centres for girls leaving school at fourteen who could not find employment. John Whinnerah, a Barrow Council member from 1913 and chairman of the Barrow Education Committee from 1924 to 1934, died in the year the building was authorised. The President of the National Union of Teachers described it as "the finest Women's Institute in this country".

The building is two storeys high with a rectangular plan and rounded corners, arranged around an open central courtyard. Walls are faced with local rustic bricks laid in ornate header and English bonds on the exterior and Flemish bond to the courtyard, with reconstructed stone plinth and details. A moulded cast-iron band with chevron pattern runs at floor level between the metal-framed windows. The structure has reinforced concrete floors and a flat roof.

The design prioritises maximum light and ventilation through pivoted window frames, glazed doors, catch-light windows on ground floor corridors, and clerestory windows to the upper floor courtyard on the east and south sides. The style is geometric, consistent with late 1930s modernism.

The entrance facade to Abbey Road features a tall central entrance bay, taller than the flanking eight-window bays. The entrance bay contains double glazed doors with a projecting Art Deco plaque reading "JOHN WHINNERAH / INSTITUTE" above, surmounted by a coat of arms in a deep moulded recess. A chevron drip-mould projects above the upper floor window. Corner windows on the ground floor are of concrete blocks with decorative slots above. The parapet is stepped stone.

The rear facade contains 19 windows, with the outer four-window bays taller than the centre, which has an entrance at each end; the right entrance is original. A straight flight of steps with concrete screen wall at the far right leads down to a service room below the south end of the west wing. The left return to Hindpool Road comprises five symmetrical bays arranged 3:1:7:1:3 windows, with the outer bays slightly recessed. Full-height windows at positions four and twelve sit in slightly projecting bays of fine brickwork with projecting glazing. The right return abuts adjacent commercial premises for much of its length, but a side entrance with double doors is present at the east end.

Corridors, classrooms and service rooms have walls of glazed texture bricks in blue, light brown and silver grey, or white silica bricks, with green tile bands at skirting level. Other rooms are plastered. Terrazzo flooring in cream covers corridors, cloakrooms and lavatories, with two stairways also in terrazzo. Steel stair-rails in geometric style have moulded handrails. Offices have wood block floors; classrooms have small red quarry tiles in herringbone pattern with black borders and fireplace aprons.

The ground floor east entrance wing contains the main entrance hall with paired inner doors, each with six glazed panels and original door furniture. Flanking offices have glazed doors to the courtyard with tall flanking windows. The main staircase comprises three straight flights. Classrooms have plain doors with glazed panels and chrome handles. The assembly hall occupies the north side of the courtyard, featuring pilastered walls and tall paired glazed windows on the south side. No fenestration exists to the north side; white tile wall lining and a breeze block partition wall with stoves and sinks were added in the late twentieth century, likely at the time of re-roofing with central ventilation unit and roof water tank. The west wing north end contains lavatories, probably originally shower rooms, with blue glazed brick walls and iron-framed partitions with glazed panels. A hidden cistern room is concealed above. The stairwell at the south end of the west wing has two straight flights, the lower with a steel framed rail as main stairs and the upper flight with a solid wall. Light grey brick walling appears below the stairs and light brown above. The south-west corner kitchen has walls lined with green, buff and grey bricks, with three-section wooden panelled partitions screening a larder and storeroom fitted with stone shelf below the window. The south wing has doors with original fittings and wood block flooring to main rooms, with paired catch-light windows. The original corridor has been screened from the courtyard by a late twentieth-century added range. A former office in the south-east corner has been partitioned, with plastered walls above green glazed brick skirting.

The first floor east wing originally had open stair access, now screened off, with a large central room over the entrance. The north-east and south-east corners contain a large room with wood-block floor and later partitions. The south-west corner room has red quarry tile flooring with black edging and a blocked fireplace, with a later drying room partition. A short flight of steps on the west corridor links to the higher-level corridors of the south and east wings.

The gate piers consist of two pairs on the east front, opposite the main entrance and at the side path to the north. They are octagonal, approximately 1.5 metres high, constructed of brick with concrete capping, plinth and three grooved top courses. Remains of original railings are visible on the pier outsides; stone footings for the missing railings are thought to be remnants of the boundary of the former Jute Works which stood on the site.

The cycle shed is linked to the north boundary wall, approximately 30 metres from the main building and facing the yard area. Approximately 10 metres wide and 2.5 metres high, it is built of rustic brick with a flat arch of header bricks on a steel beam and a flat roof. The wide entrance was boarded up at the time of inspection; it was probably originally open-sided.

The original opening description lists general classrooms, craft rooms, domestic science rooms with larders and stores, changing room with shower bath compartment, headmistresses' rooms, offices, library, cloakrooms and cycle shed. Heating was by low-pressure hot water, lighting by electricity with flush-type ceiling fittings, and cooking and domestic services by gas and electricity.

Late twentieth-century internal alterations include a single-storey extension along the south side of the courtyard, conversion of the assembly hall to a kitchen, and partitions creating a restaurant and coffee bar in the north-west corner, with a hair-dressing salon above.

The building represents a well-designed example of efforts made between 1918 and 1939 to improve education and living standards for young people and women from the poorest areas of major industrial centres.