| Summary : A much-altered former Public Hall and Assembly Rooms of two and three storeys with Queen Anne features and elevations on St George's Road, Garden Street and St George's Lane, that opened in 1900 and was built to a design by John Dent Harker. It is rectangular in plan and is constructed of brick with orange moulded terracotta embellishments beneath flat and pitched slate roofs. By 1910 the building had become a cinema and alterations to the interior layout took place in 1925 after it was bought by the Blackpool Tower Company and became the Palace Cinema and Restaurant, complete with ballroom, restaurant, café, assembly room, Masonic room, billiard room and shops on the ground floor fronting Garden Street. At an unspecified date in the inter-war years part of the building fronting St George's Road was converted into a car showroom. Part of the building continued as a cinema until 1957 when it was sold to Lytham St Anne's freemasons. A mezzanine floor was added in the former cinema to create rooms on a new upper floor for the freemasons. Elsewhere a freemason's boardroom was built on part of the flat roof, a Steward's flat was created out of what are thought to have been former dressing rooms, the former ballroom was converted into a Masonic Lodge Room, the former billiard room in the basement had its ceiling lowered and all fixtures and fittings removed, the former car showroom was converted into a furniture retailers, the main staircase was moved to allow insertion of a lift shaft, and a large part of the ground floor was lowered and a covered market hall created. Externally a glass and iron canopy was added in the 1980s. |
More information : A much-altered former Public Hall and Assembly Rooms of two and three storeys with Queen Anne features and elevations on St George's Road, Garden Street and St George's Lane, that opened in 1900 and was built to a design by John Dent Harker. It is rectangular in plan and is constructed of brick with orange moulded terracotta embellishments beneath flat and pitched slate roofs. By 1910 the building had become a cinema and alterations to the interior layout took place in 1925 after it was bought by the Blackpool Tower Company and became the Palace Cinema and Restaurant, complete with ballroom, restaurant, café, assembly room, Masonic room, billiard room and shops on the ground floor fronting Garden Street. At an unspecified date in the inter-war years part of the building fronting St George's Road was converted into a car showroom. Part of the building continued as a cinema until 1957 when it was sold to Lytham St Anne's freemasons. A mezzanine floor was added in the former cinema to create rooms on a new upper floor for the freemasons. Elsewhere a freemason's boardroom was built on part of the flat roof, a Steward's flat was created out of what are thought to have been former dressing rooms, the former ballroom was converted into a Masonic Lodge Room, the former billiard room in the basement had its ceiling lowered and all fixtures and fittings removed, the former car showroom was converted into a furniture retailers, the main staircase was moved to allow insertion of a lift shaft, and a large part of the ground floor was lowered and a covered market hall created. Externally a glass and iron canopy was added in the 1980s.
The St George's Road elevation is of two storeys with nine bays. The slightly projecting central bay comprises the entrance to the former Public Hall with a fanlight and classical surround, above which is a canted casement bay window with glazing bars to the upper floor. Flanking the central bay are windows of round-arched mullion and transom windows to both floors above which is a brick and terracotta parapet topped by cast iron railings. The three bays to the left comprise a blocked former entrance with a classical surround that is flanked by modern shop entrances inserted over the inter-war car showroom doorways. Rectangular windows with glazing bars are on the upper floors with their surrounds carried upward to form part of the parapet with railings between. The three bays to the right of the former Public Hall entrance comprise a modern shop front to the ground floor beneath a modern glass and iron canopy that is carried around the corner and along the full length of the Garden Street elevation. The upper floor has two rectangular windows of similar design to those to the left of the former Public Hall entrance, between which is an ornamental downspout executed in terracotta. Rising above the recessed shop entrance is a corner turret topped by a lantern and cupola. The Garden Street elevation has shop fronts to the ground floor either side of an entrance to the Masonic rooms. The upper floor is of two and three storeys with a five-bay two-storey part to the left and a three-storey gable to the right. A canted bay window matching that on the St George's Road elevation forms the central of the five bays with a pediment containing a keyed oculus above. To either side of the bay window there is a pair of rectangular windows beneath moulded pediments. The gable has a centrally-placed arrangement of narrow round-arched windows set within a terracotta surround. Those to the first floor form two levels of small round arched windows with the upper of the two levels now blocked. The gable has been truncated and has a crow-stepped finish. The St George's Lane elevation is relatively plain. A shop front and some terracotta is carried around the corner from the Garden Street elevation. Elsewhere there are exits and fire exits to the ground floor, four lunette brick-arched windows with later rectangular windows inserted into three of them, and a scattering of other windows.
A basement, formerly containing a billiard room, exists below part of the building. At ground floor level much of the building is given over to retail space with shops, a market hall at reduced ground floor level, and a café. There is no trace of original historic fabric. The former Public Hall and cinema space has been divided both horizontally and vertically and the original ceiling with its hammer beam trusses remains partly exposed. A new staircase inserted in the 1950s leads from the Garden Street entrance to the first floor where there are kitchens and a Freemason's Dining Room. Also on this floor there is a truncated Lodge Room, with a shallow vaulted ceiling and plasterwork decoration executed in the 1950s and redecorated in the 1980s. Outside the Lodge Room there are candidate's waiting rooms and a lobby executed in classical decoration in the 1950s. The upper floor contains a converted Steward's flat, a modern small Freemason's boardroom, storage accommodation and disused toilets dating from the early 20th century.
The building was assessed for listing in 2009, but did not meet the criteria for addition to the list for the following reasons:
It is a relatively late example of a Public Hall and Assembly Rooms in a seaside context.
Whilst still contributing to the streetscape and the local Conservation Area, the building has undergone numerous external alterations that have reduced its architectural quality and authenticity.
Wholesale internal changes have led to the loss of many of its original fixtures and fittings.
The building's original internal layout is now difficult to recognise due to the many subsequent internal alterations. (1) |