Description

SD4761NW
1685-1/6/181

LANCASTER
MEETING HOUSE LANE (North side)
Storey Institute

(Formerly Listed as: MEETING HOUSE LANE Storey Institute (now School of Arts))

18/02/70

GV
II
Art institute. 1887, extended 1906. Designed by Paley and Austin. Sandstone ashlar with ashlar dressings. Slate roofs with curved gables and tall chimneys. White glazed brick used for rear walls of extension. Jacobean Revival style. Built on a corner site with a domed octagonal turret at the junction of the two facades.

Two storeys with attic and cellars. Facades have string courses,and glazing bar sash windows which have roll-moulded surrounds on the ground floor. On the first floor they have architraves with moulded sills and with strapwork ornament above moulded pediments.

The facade to Meeting House Lane has three principal bays with paired windows on the ground and first floors and with the attic windows rising into dormers which have scrolled shaped pediments. Between them are narrower bays which have timber attic dormers set behind the parapet and projecting from the mansard roof slope. The right-hand bay contains the doorway, which has a bolection-moulded architrave with an outer moulding enriched by shaft rings and with a segmental pediment. To each side are engaged Tuscan columns with strapwork decoration above their bases, supporting an entablature whose cornice continues the string course. On the first floor are two rows of windows lighting the stairs. Towards the left of the Meeting House Lane facade is the Art Gallery, which projects forwards slightly under an elaborate shaped gable with cornices, finials, and four pilasters rising from first-floor level. On the ground floor are four windows and a door. Above, the wall is blank except for a central oculus in the gable and a first-floor plaque inscribed: 'IN HONOREM VICTORIAE REGINAE NOSTRAE... MDCCCLXXXVII'. To the left is a lower studio of one storey plus attic with two windows on the ground floor and with its upper window rising into a gable dormer. At the left a single-storey curved wall contains a round-arched gateway. At the right of the facade the corner turret has a lead dome with a spirelet.

The facade to Castle Hill is of four bays, treated similarly except that the third bay has four windows on the ground and first floors, and has paired attic dormers. To the right, canted back at an angle, is the addition of 1906, of three storeys, with two bays at the left projecting forwards slightly under a shaped gable with an oculus and with paired windows. To the right are two main bays in the centre, with paired windows, with narrower bays to their left and right. Set back behind a parapet is a long timber attic dormer.

INTERIOR: the first floor rear corridor is lit by a curved stained-glass window designed by Mr Jowett of Shrigley and Hunt and containing medallion figures symbolical of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music, Literature and Science, and the names of men distinguished in the Arts. The first floor exhibition hall is top-lit by a lantern spanned by four trusses. In a semicircular alcove at the rear is a marble statue of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort sculptured by Mr Wood of Chelsea.
Listing NGR: SD4743261731

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• The Storey at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7766670

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)