Description

SJ 6087 PALMYRA SQUARE
(South side)
704/2/105
Parr Hall
04.04.1975

GV II

Public hall. 1895, by William Owen, for J Charlton Parr, who provided the building and the site. Later C20 alterations. Brown brick with red brick with terra cotta and ashlar dressings and slate roofs. 2 storeys, !:5:1 bays. Windows are mainly original glazing bar sashes. Single-storey lean-to entrance with 3 pairs of double doors under a canopy on scroll brackets, flanked by 2-light windows. All these openings have 3-light stone-mullioned overlights. 2-storeyed end pavilions with hipped roofs. 2-storeyed centre block has windows divided by pilasters, and square-domed belvedere enclosed by a balustrade.
INTERIOR:Main hall has curving balcony on 3 sides, cantilevered from outer walls, with coved ceiling underneath, and Grecian decoration. Windows, now blocked, have eared architraves. Coved ceiling with plain panels.
Stage flanked by panelled wooden staircase enclosures, approached from the stage by curved staircases with turned balustrades. At the rear of the stage, an elaborate Decorated Gothic style two-tower organ case, with fielded and quatrefoil panelling and crocketed pinnacles. This contains the organ, by the notable French organ-builder Aristide Cavaille-Coll. The organ was built in 1870 at Bracewell Hall, Yorks., for the music publisher TJ Hopwood. It was enlarged in 1875, and resited in 1883 to Ketton Hall, Rutland. The organ was bought by Warrington Corporation and installed in Parr Hall in 1923-26. This is the only example in England of an instrument by Cavaille-Coll which retains its original specification, and is regarded as a significant work by a major French builder.
Ground floor corridors around the hall give access to staircases, exits and meeting rooms, all largely refitted late C20.
All the listed buildings in Palmyra Square form a group with Nos 9 to 2l odd, the Museum and Art Gallery Bold Street No l0 Egypt Street + Nos 5 to 13 odd Springfield Street and Nos l and 15 Suez Street].

Listing NGR: SJ6036487992

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Parr Hall at Wikipedia
• Parr Hall official website
• Wikidata Q7139717

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)