Description

LANCASTER

SD4761NE KING STREET
1685-1/7/151 (West side)
18/02/70 Assembly Rooms
(Formerly Listed as:
KING STREET
Assembly Rooms (now used as
Employment Exchange))

GV II

Assembly room, now antique market and dance studio. 1759,
enlarged and altered early and late C19. Possibly by Richard
Gillow. For the trustees of Penny's Hospital (qv). Coursed
dressed sandstone with quoins and ashlar dressings. Slate
roof. Originally L-shaped with a rear wing at the right to
house the staircase, but extended behind the main block in the
early C19, and again behind the left in the later C19.
2 tall storeys and 5 bays, almost symmetrical. The central
entrance has a semicircular Tuscan porch mounted on 3
semicircular steps, with 2 columns and semicolumns without
bases, and a doorway with plain surround. To the right, the
5th bay contains a tall doorway with a square overlight and
raised quoined surround, leading to the staircase to the
assembly room on the upper floor. The windows at ground floor
have matching surrounds, but those at 1st floor have raised
plain surrounds, all are large 18-pane sashes, and the glazing
bars of some at 1st floor may be original. Between the 1st and
2nd, and the 4th and 5th bays lead rainwater heads are mounted
below the moulded wooden gutter cornice. The roof is hipped.
INTERIOR: ground floor has an axial beam supported by 2
cast-iron columns (probably C19). Upper floor reached by
open-well staircase with closed string, turned balusters and
ramped handrail. The assembly room on 1st floor has a
musicians' gallery (probably by Gillow's) carried on 2 wooden
Tuscan columns, with a projecting centre supported by
brackets, and the front panels decorated with Chinese
Chippendale fretwork design; the walls have raised fielded
panelling, and a dentilled cornice to the coved ceiling. At
ground floor a doorway behind the staircase has an ex situ
lintel carved with initials and the date '1714'.

Listing NGR: SD4753261637

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26506176

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

• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)