Assembly Rooms

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An 8 bay long by 3 bay wide stone building, gabled and slated with double pile roofs to front and rear.

The entrance elevation consists of a central semi-circular arched opening with sandstone trim, chamfered reveals, arched hood moulding, and double timber doors. On each side arched 2 pane windows centrally positioned in random rubble white limestone gables. The valley between gables centred over the entrance door. A duality if ever there was one and where does the rainwater drain! Flat stone barges with kneelers. Set back behind the duality the upper part of the former entrance gable which has a pitched roof, and a small porch with doors in side gables. Above the valley a narrow arched window with hood moulding lighting the roofspace of main hall.

The elevation to Fairhill Road consists of the 4 bay main hall with 4 no. 6 pane window with sandstone trim. The lower bay at the SE end has a 1914-18 war memorial plaque in the centre. At the other end an arched doorway with wooden door and 2 arched windows, all with sandstone trim. The doorway and surround probably transferred from the original entrance. Both old and new walls at SE are built of coursed white limestone while the new walls at the other end are of random rubble white limestone. All gables have kneelers and bargestones.

The NW elevation consists of 2 unequal gables but the valley between them centred on the ridge of the main hall. The smaller gable has a small window while the larger has a large square headed rectangular window subdivided into 10 lights further subdivided into a total of 60 small panes. Walls built of random rubble white limestone, quoins, heavy kneelers with odd projecting kneeler between gables. Drainage must be internal. The gable of the main hall has an arched window with hood, stone barges and heavy kneeler.

There is a narrow passage between the NE wall and the stone boundary wall, which is closed by a flat roofed small extension at the Smith Street end. Its walls are smooth rendered.

The building has a small paved forecourt to Smith Street and is set slightly back from Fairhill Road and both these boundaries have metal railings and gates and cast iron moulded gate piers. Elsewhere low random walls form boundaries and one at Smith Street terminates in a round pier with flat top.

Historical information

The original 4 bay long hall with small porch was erected by the Drapers’ Company as a Parochial Sunday School in 1834 and designed by W.J. Booth. It later became the assembly rooms. The building was extended in 1993 with the additions of gabled extension front and rear. Manor Architects designed the extension.

References

Primary Sources
1. O.S. Map 1832 Revised 1856 Londonderry sh. 46.
2. Curl J.S. The Londonderry Plantation 1609-1914. p. 224, 225.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A stone built single storey hall in white limestone in a Tudoresque manner by the Drapers’ Company to designs of W.J. Booth in 1834 and extended recently in similar materials. A substantial building but of stodgy architectural content but contributes to the parish church environment and Smith Street.