Description

SK 38/3925 PARISH OF MELBOURNE POTTER STREET 6/159 (South Side) Wesley Hall GV II Savings bank and Athenaeum, now Wesleyan Hall. 1853-4 by H I Stevens of Derby in Italianate style with minor later alterations. Red brick with stone dressings and plinth, rusticated stone quoins and wide plain first floor stone band with similar ground floor sill band and narrower first floor sill band. Hipped slate roof with moulded stone cornice Two storeys and four bays with tower attached to south east corner. Main elevation has advanced single storey porches to either side also with hipped slate roofs, rusticated quoins and moulded cornices. Each porch has a semi-circular headed doorcase with rusticated jambs, moulded arch with console keystone, continuous raised impost bands and a flush panelled door below divided overlight. Between the porches there are four windows in moulded surrounds, plus console keystones, with timber cross windows. To the centre there is an elaborate late C19 ironwork bracket carrying wooden sign. Above there are four, more widely spaced, plain sashes in similar surrounds. Above again is the deep band at the base of the cornice, there is a recessed panel with 'Athenaeum' inscribed in raised capital letters. Similar windows to west gable wall with 'AD 1853' inscribed in the cornice. Similar tripartite sashes in moulded surrounds to east gable wall with 'SAVINGS BANK' inscribed above. Attached tower in similar style except two top stages which have rusticated corner pilaster strips and central panels with blocked circular keystoned openings to lower stage and twin semi-circular headed windows above to each side with a moulded cornice over. Interior is very plain with C20 fittings. The building was opened by Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister to Queen Victoria between 1855-1858 and 1859-1865 who also laid the foundation stone.

Listing NGR: SK3868525210

External Links

• Wikidata Q26388654

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Recommended Books

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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
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  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014