Former Assembly Rooms of Music & Drama

The Former Assembly Rooms of Music & Drama is a significant building featuring a rectangular double pile plan, constructed in the early 19th century. It has a symmetrical two-storey and basement façade on the south side, which is made of lightly scribed stucco and includes a band course and plinth. The building is topped with twin hipped slate roofs and has wide bracket eaves, along with a rubble chimney stack. The ground floor features small pane sash windows with arched heads, set in stepped recesses that flank a central plain porch added in 1829 or 1830. This porch has an arched entrance with double panelled doors beneath a traceried fanlight. Railings are positioned on either side of the porch, with steps leading down to the basement on the right. Low walls extend at both ends of the building, featuring corner piers and blocked doorways that enclose small courtyards, also dating from 1829 or 1830. At the rear, there are two-storey ranges that follow the slope of the land, with asymmetrically spaced sash windows and gable ends that have pediment treatments.

The north-facing rear of the building has a two-storey, five-bay stucco front with a plinth and a channelled ground floor beneath a band course. It features wide bracket eaves that are higher over the central bays, which include tall tripartite small pane sash windows with glazed arched heads that light the Parry Hall. The outer bays have square-headed windows, and the stepped-down ground floor is accessed through central half-glazed doors.

Originally, this building housed an "Assembly and Promenade Room," a card room, a billiards room, and a "Refreshment Room." The Assembly Room now serves as the Joseph Parry Hall, which features a minstrel's gallery and an egg and dart cornice. The building has undergone alterations for university use.