Description

BURNLEY

SD8332SE MANCHESTER ROAD
906-1/19/88 (North West side)
29/09/77 Burnley Mechanics
(Formerly Listed as:
MANCHESTER ROAD
(West side)
Former Mechanics Institute)

GV II*

Mechanics' Institute, now theatre, arts centre. 1854-5, by
James Green of Todmorden; enlarged 1888 by William Waddington;
altered. Sandstone ashlar, with felted hipped roofs. Palazzo
style. Rectangular plan on corner site plus later additions to
the left and the rear.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with basements to the rear, a 5-window
main range plus a 2-window extension to the left. The
symmetrical main range has an emphatically rusticated ground
floor, rusticated quoins at 1st floor, a panelled band between
floors interrupted by balustraded balconies to the 1st-floor
windows, a string course over the 1st floor, a plain frieze
and a prominent modillioned cornice enriched with lion-masks.
The ground floor has round-headed arcaded openings in 2 sets
of 3, all with emphatic rusticated voussoirs and keystones and
linked by an impost band, each set composed of a pair of
Venetian windows flanking a narrower arch, with a window in
the 1st of these, a doorway in the 2nd, and Ionic colonnettes
in the Venetian windows, which also have panelled enrichment
to the heads. All these windows now have plate glass glazing.
The 1st floor has a tripartite window in the centre with a
Corinthian architrave and segmental pediment containing
richly-carved ornament, flanked by 2 pairs of windows with
pedimented Corinthian architraves, all these windows with
balustraded balconies. The lower 2-storey extension to the
left has a splayed corner and is in generally similar style
but with pilastered architraves to the windows, and a wide
round-headed doorway adjoining the main range. The right-hand
return wall of the main range (to York Street), of 3 bays with
a rock-faced basement, has a tetrastyle Corinthian porch in
the centre, 3 round-headed windows each side of this, and at
1st floor fenestration similar to the front including a
tripartite window in the centre with a Corinthian architrave
and segmental pediment. The extension continued to the rear of
this, of 3 bays and slightly stepped back, defers to the
former by imitating its fenestration but with pilastered
architraves.

INTERIOR altered.

Listing NGR: SD8398932409

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Burnley Mechanics at Wikipedia
• Burnley Mechanics official website
• Wikidata Q5000019

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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