Working Men'S Club And Institute

BARROW IN FURNESS

SD1969SE ABBEY ROAD 708-1/12/25 (North West side) 06/05/76 Working Men's Club and Institute

GV II

Club. 1870-71. By HA Darbishire (Almanack). Brindled brick with rubbed brick and ashlar sandstone dressings, graduated slate roof. 2 storeys, 3:3:3 bays with 1-storey, 3x4 bay side wing on right and C20 side wing to left. Main range: symmetrical. Centre breaks forward and has moulded plinth and channel rustication to ground floor. Panelled double door and blind fanlight under rubbed-brick arch with keystone; small sashes to each side with panelled aprons, flat arches and keystones. 1st floor: iron-railed balcony on slender, stone brackets; part-glazed door under archivolt with keystone flanked by composite pilasters and by small sashes in recesses with shells also under archivolts with keystones; double pilasters to each side. Ashlar corbel table to dentilled ashlar pediment with carved Borough Arms in tympanum; on the apex a small window in ashlar dormer supported by seated putti. Outer bays: large round-arched sashes with glazing bars beneath Moorish, rubbed-brick arches with impost string course and keystones. Brick floor band beneath recesses with paired sashes given simplified treatment as ground floor; corbels within the recesses then the eaves corbel table as centre; ashlar cornice and ogee gutter. Hipped roof with small oval dormers (now fibreglass) and vents above; over the pediment is a swept, roof projection with square turret under bracketed cornice and ogee cupola with pyramidal finial and weathervane. Side wing to right: windows as main range; corbelled pediment with oculus; hipped roof with louvred ridge vent. INTERIOR: stair hall has original patterned, tile floor; cantilevered stone staircase with cast-iron balustrade and newel post, wreathed oak handrail; pyramidal ceiling lantern. Hall to 1st floor left has scissor-braced roof trusses. Built at a cost of »3,450 on site given by the Furness Railway Co; principal benefactor HW Schneider. The Borough Arms carved by 'Miles of Preston' (Almanack). The freestanding granite columns flanking main entrance bear dates 1870 and 1930 but do not appear to relate to the original building. (Barrow in Furness Almanack and Tide Tables: Barrow in Furness: 1886-: 67-68).

Listing NGR: SD1965869472