Description

ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA

SP3166SE KENILWORTH STREET
1208-1/2/200 (West side)
18/08/80 No.14
The Irwin Memorial Hall
(Formerly Listed as:
KENILWORTH STREET
(West side)
Nos.12 AND 14
Royal British Legion (14))

GV II

A hall with office range to the front, c.1840, with some later alterations and additions.

MATERIALS: The building is constructed from pinkish-brown brick, with a painted stucco front façade, scored in imitation of ashlar, under a Welsh slate roof. PLAN: The building is orientated east-west, with the front range facing east onto Kenilworth Street. The front range is single depth, and has a central entrance hall, with principal rooms to either side, and three rooms above, with paired staircases to the rear of the range; the halls to the rear are large, undivided rectangular spaces on two floors. There is a single storey extension to the north.

EXTERIOR: The main elevation is a three-bay, two-storey, stuccoed range with a plinth. There are Tuscan pilasters to the angles through the ground and first floors, and to the first floor at either side of the central window. The ground floor has a central entrance, with six-panel double doors with a rectangular overlight, in a surround of Tuscan pilasters, with a frieze and cornice. The ground floor windows are one-over-one sashes with margin glazing. The first floor windows are two-over-four sashes with margin glazing. All the windows to the front façade are set in plain reveals with sills and tooled architraves; this elevation has frieze, cornice, and blocking course with a central raised pediment. There are paired gable stacks, both stuccoed. The long hall range to the rear has high windows under segmental-headed brick openings. There is a C20 flat-roofed brick extension to the north of the rear hall, adjoining an earlier single-storey extension, probably originally a boiler house, with double pitched roof covered in slate.

INTERIOR: The front range has principal rooms to either side of the central entrance hall, to the rear of which are paired dogleg staircases, now replaced with C20 examples. The principal rooms to the ground floor retain parts of their cornicing; they have been in use as lavatories and therefore have mid- C20 facilities installed. The hall to the rear is a single, undivided rectangular space with mid-C20 decorative finishes. The first floor has three rooms to the front range, with original doorcasings and some cornices. The hall to the rear is a single, undivided space with similar mid C20 finishes to that on the ground floor; there is a raised stage area to the east which gives directly on to the central room in the front range. A suspended ceiling has been inserted in the C20. The original fireplace openings in the side walls have been sealed.

HISTORY: Kenilworth Street was laid out, along with the adjacent streets on a planned grid pattern, c.1822-6 by John Kempson, who was also working in Birmingham at this period. The building was constructed c.1840, perhaps originally as a Methodist meeting hall. It is identified as the Albert Hall on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1889.The Hall was owned and used until the early years of the C21 by the Leamington Spa branch of the Royal British Legion.

SOURCES: L.F. Cave, Royal Leamington Spa: Its History and Development. (1988) p.39.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The Irwin Memorial Hall is an imposing early C19 classical building with a well-handled façade, behind which lies an administration range leading to large open hall spaces on two floors. There have been some C20 alterations associated with its use as a meeting hall and latterly, a Royal British Legion hall and social club; despite this, the elevations, plan form and circulation remain remarkably intact. The introduction of services to the front range, and the addition of leisure facilities to the hall spaces have made little overall impact on the building, and it retains its dignified presence on Kenilworth Street, a planned street laid out as part of the expansion of Royal Leamington Spa in the years just prior to the construction of the hall.

Bibliography
Royal Leamington Spa: Its History and Development (L F Cave), 1988, Page(s) 39

Listing NGR: SP3196266039

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26661462

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.

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