Southport Arts Centre

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Southport Arts Centre

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Southport Arts Centre
Location Lord Street, Southport, Sefton, Merseyside, England
Coordinates 53°38′50″N3°00′22″W / 53.6472°N 3.0060°W / 53.6472; -3.0060 Coordinates: 53°38′50″N3°00′22″W / 53.6472°N 3.0060°W / 53.6472; -3.0060
OS grid reference SD 336 172
Built 1873–74
Built for Southport Corporation
Architect Maxwell and Tuke
Architectural style(s) Mixed including Italian Gothic and French Renaissance elements
Governing body Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council
Listed Building – Grade II
Designated 15 November 1972
Reference no. 1379674
Location map United Kingdom Southport Central.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of Southport Arts Centre in Southport town centre

Southport Arts Centre, formerly known as Cambridge Hall, is on the east side of Lord Street, Southport, Sefton, Merseyside, England, and stands between Southport Town Hall and the Atkinson Art Gallery and Library. It was built in 1873–74 and originally contained an assembly hall. The centre contains mixed architectural styles and has a tall clock tower at the right end. During the 20th century the assembly hall was converted into a theatre, and it forms part of the arts complex known as The Atkinson. The arts centre is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building.

Lord Street, Southport

Lord Street is the main shopping street of Southport, in Merseyside. It is 1 mile (1.6 km) long, with a roundabout marking each end of the street. There are many water features, gardens and architectural buildings along the entire street, with a mix of residential, commercial and public buildings. It was laid out in the early 19th century.

Southport seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, England

Southport is a large seaside town in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England.

Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Metropolitan borough in England

The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England, was formed on 1 April 1974 by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, the urban districts of Formby and Litherland, and part of West Lancashire Rural District within the new county of Merseyside. The borough consists of a coastal strip of land on the Irish Sea, and extends from Bootle in the south, to Southport in the north. In the south-east, it extends inland to Maghull. The district is bounded by Liverpool to the south, Knowsley to the south-east, and West Lancashire to the east.

Contents

History

The arts centre was built in 1873–74 and was designed by Maxwell and Tuke. [1] [upper-alpha 1] It initially contained an assembly hall on the first floor. The foundation stone was laid by Princess Mary of Cambridge and the building was originally named after her. [3] The assembly hall was converted into a theatre in the 20th century. [1] As of 2014 the organisation of the centre is integrated with the Atkinson Art Gallery and Library and it is known as The Atkinson. [4]

Maxwell and Tuke Architect

Maxwell and Tuke was an architectural practice in Northwest England, founded in 1857 by James Maxwell in Bury. In 1865 Maxwell was joined in the practice by Charles Tuke, who became a partner two years later. The practice moved its main office to Manchester in 1884. Frank, son of James Maxwell, joined the practice in the later 1880s and became a partner. The two senior partners both died in 1893, and Frank Maxwell continued the practice, maintaining its name as Maxwell and Tuke.

Atkinson Art Gallery and Library

The Atkinson is a building on the east side of Lord Street extending round the corner into Eastbank Street, Southport, Sefton, Merseyside, England. The building is a combination of two former buildings, the original Atkinson Art Gallery and Library that opened in 1878, and the adjacent Manchester and Liverpool District Bank that was built in 1879. These were combined in 1923–24 and the interiors have been integrated. The original building is in Neoclassical style, and the former bank is in Renaissance style.

Architecture

The centre is constructed in sandstone ashlar with a slate roof. [3] Its architectural style is mixed, with elements of Italian Gothic and French Renaissance styles together with "Victorian incised ornament". [1] The building is in two storeys with attics and has a symmetrical nine-baysfront, excluding the towers. Running along the ground floor is a loggia incorporating a porte cochère in the central three bays. The loggia forms an arcade of segmental arches carried on cylindrical columns with crocketed capitals. Behind the loggia are round-headed entrances and segmental-headed windows. The outer bays project forward, their lower storey is rusticated, and it contains a square-headed window with voussoirs. In the upper floor, each bay contains a tall round-headed window with moulded imposts. Between the floors is a frieze and a cornice. Atop the building are three towers, one at each end and one in the centre. The tallest is the clock tower at the right end of the front facing Lord Street. This has a tall belfry, above which are clock faces on all four sides, and an elaborate lead-clad spire. [3] The tower is 132 feet (40 m) high. [1] At the left end of the same front is a smaller tower with a Baroque-style roof, and in the centre is a tower-like attic dormer. Along the top of the building, between the towers, is a dentilled cornice with a pierced parapet. [3] The interior of the centre contains an entrance hall with a coffered ceiling, and a stone staircase with florid Gothic columns. [1] [3] On the left of the front of the building facing Lord Street is the two-bay entrance to the Cambridge Arcade, and on the right is an arch linking it to the Atkinson Art Gallery and Library. Both of these have inscribed friezes, and both are included in the listing. [3]

Sandstone A clastic sedimentary rock composed mostly of sand-sized particles

Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized mineral particles or rock fragments.

Ashlar Finely dressed stone and associated masonry

Ashlar is finely dressed stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared or the structure built of it. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally cuboid, mentioned by Vitruvius as opus isodomum, or less frequently trapezoidal. Precisely cut "on all faces adjacent to those of other stones", ashlar is capable of very thin joints between blocks, and the visible face of the stone may be quarry-faced or feature a variety of treatments: tooled, smoothly polished or rendered with another material for decorative effect.

Slate A fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, weakly metamorphic rock

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. Foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering, but instead is in planes perpendicular to the direction of metamorphic compression.

Present day

The arts centre forms part of the complex known as The Atkinson. On the left side of the entrance on the front facing Lord Street is a shop selling craft items, [5] and on the right side is a small café known as the Bakery, [6] The upper floors are occupied by a theatre and a performance space known as the Studio. The theatre seats 440 people and has a proscenium arch and facilities for cinema projection. [7] The Studio can be used for a variety of purposes and it includes a permanent stage and balcony seating. [8]

Proscenium

A proscenium is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch and on the bottom by the stage floor itself, which serves as the frame into which the audience observes from a more or less unified angle the events taking place upon the stage during a theatrical performance. The concept of the fourth wall of the theatre stage space that faces the audience is essentially the same.

Appraisal

Southport Arts Centre was designated as a Grade II listed building on 15 November 1972. [3] Grade II is the lowest of the three grades of listing and is applied to buildings that are "nationally important and of special interest". [9] The arts centre forms a group with other Grade II listed buildings nearby, the Atkinson Art Gallery and Library, and the Town Hall. [3] [10] [11] [12]

See also

Southport is a seaside town in Sefton, Merseyside, England. It contains 174 buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated listed buildings. Of these, three are listed at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. There are no buildings listed at Grade I.

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References

Notes

  1. ↑ James Maxwell and (William) Charles Tuke formed an architectural partnership in Bury, and later moved to Manchester. Their most notable building was Blackpool Tower. [2]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969], Lancashire: North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 627, ISBN   978-0-300-12667-9
  2. ↑ Pearson, Lynn (2011), "Maxwell, James (1838–1893)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press , retrieved 9 September 2014
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Historic England, "Southport Arts Centre with entrance to Cambridge Arcade (1379674)", National Heritage List for England , retrieved 9 September 2014
  4. ↑ The Atkinson, Sefton Council, retrieved 9 September 2014
  5. ↑ The Atkinson Shop, The Atkinson, retrieved 9 September 2014
  6. ↑ Bakery, The Atkinson, retrieved 9 September 2014
  7. ↑ Theatre, The Atkinson, retrieved 9 September 2014
  8. ↑ Studio, The Atkinson, retrieved 9 September 2014
  9. ↑ Listed Buildings, Historic England, retrieved 4 April 2015
  10. ↑ Historic England, "Town Hall, Southport (1379678)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 September 2014
  11. ↑ Historic England. "Atkinson Library and Art Gallery (1379669)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  12. ↑ Historic England, "Southport Library (1379675)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 September 2014
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