Working Men'S Club And Institute

The building comprises a Working Men's Club and Institute, constructed between 1870 and 1871, designed by HA Darbishire. It was built with brindled brick, rubbed brick detailing, and ashlar sandstone dressings, topped with a graduated slate roof. The main range is two storeys and comprises three bays, with a single-storey, three-by-four-bay wing extending to the right and a 20th-century wing to the left.

The main range presents a symmetrical façade. The central element projects forward and has a moulded plinth and channel rustication on the ground floor. A panelled double door is positioned beneath a rubbed-brick arch with a keystone, flanked by small sash windows with panelled aprons, flat arches, and keystones. The first floor features an iron-railed balcony supported by slender stone brackets; a part-glazed door is set beneath an archivolt with a keystone, flanked by composite pilasters and small sash windows in recessed areas with shell motifs, also beneath arch-shaped details with keystones. Double pilasters define each side. An ashlar corbel table rises to a dentilled ashlar pediment displaying the carved Borough Arms within its tympanum. A small window resides within an ashlar dormer on the apex, supported by seated putti. The outer bays feature large round-arched sash windows with glazing bars, set beneath Moorish-style, rubbed-brick arches with an impost string course and keystones. The ground floor window recesses, which include paired sashes, are simplified in design, with corbels within the recesses and a subsequent eaves corbel table. An ashlar cornice and an ogee gutter complete the exterior. The roof is hipped, with small oval dormers (now fibreglass) and vents. A swept roof projection with a square turret, bracketed cornice, ogee cupola, pyramidal finial, and weathervane sits above the pediment. The side wing to the right mirrors the main range in window design and features a corbelled pediment with an oculus and a hipped roof with a louvred ridge vent.

Internally, the stair hall retains an original patterned tile floor and a cantilevered stone staircase with a cast-iron balustrade, a newel post, and a wreathed oak handrail. A pyramidal ceiling lantern provides light to the stairwell. The hall on the first floor to the left exhibits scissor-braced roof trusses.

The building was constructed at a cost of £3,450 on a site donated by the Furness Railway Company, with principal benefaction from HW Schneider. The Borough Arms were carved by ‘Miles of Preston’. Freestanding granite columns flanking the main entrance bear the dates 1870 and 1930 but are not considered original to the building.