Burslem Market Hall, Burslem Central, Stoke-on-Trent

Summary

A market hall with shops and offices of 1879 designed by E M Richards, the Burslem Board Engineer and Surveyor, built by Messrs H and R Inskip of Longton (brick and stonework), and Messrs Hill and Smith of Brierley Hill (roof).

Description

PLAN: roughly rectangular, orientated north / south, with a front elevation of shop fronts to Queen Street in the south which extends beyond the width of the main hall to both east and west.

MATERIALS: red brick with stone details, patent glazing and iron roof, timber doors and windows.

EXTERIOR: walls are red brick in Flemish bond with rendered stone detailing. The hall is spanned by a pitched, patent glazing roof which has parapet gables to north and south. The south gable abuts the rear slope of the pitched tiled roof covering the shops to the front; the shops’ roof runs at right angles to the hall roof with its gables to east and west. The roof to the shops has a brick chimney stack at either end, and a further four stacks across the ridge with a seventh stack centrally in the north slope of the roof.

The building’s principal elevation faces south to Queen Street; it is symmetrical at first-floor level where it is divided into nine bays by its tall pointed-arch windows. This symmetry is not followed at ground floor level where a large central shop front occupies two bays and other bays have either a single shop front and door, or a single door up to the offices (now flats) and double door through to the market hall. All ground floor bays but the central, largest shop front are enclosed within a broad, rendered stone arch surround. The arch surrounds are very gently pointed, almost round, except for the two over the entrance passages through to the hall which would rise to a sharp point within the cill of the first floor windows had they not been truncated by a chamfered stone cornice which is continuous along the building at first floor cill level. The jambs of the arch surrounds are indented to accommodate short columns with carved foliate capitals and shafts of polished granite. The capitals carry a cornice from which springs a simple concentric moulding to the base of the stone arch surround. Where the short cornice is continued between the columns either side of neighbouring arches, it is embellished with a carved diamond both above and below, except where space has been left to accommodate down pipes. A stone platband marking the division between ground and first floors runs the length of the building above the crown of the rounder ground floor arched surrounds. This platband is crossed at right-angles by vertical stone bands which rise in line above the jambs of the pointed arches over the two entrance doors through to the hall and the doorway of the larger central shop front.

The smaller shopfronts have stallrisers, all of which are in blue brick except that in the archway immediately east of the large central shop unit which has one in red brick. The smaller shops all have a single doorway set back from the street with mosaic tiling in front of it and a window to the side. The glazing is either one single large window or two windows; one of a single large pane, the other divided by transoms. Above the shop windows are friezes for signage, with the head of the arch above that filled with multi-paned windows. The arches enclosing the entrances lack a frieze but have windows above the doors to fill the head of the arch. The larger, central shopfront has fluted pilasters to its sides, two large window panes with a transom over to the west, then curved transom windows either side of a doorway to the east with black and white checked tiles in front of the door. Above the window is a frieze which steps up to a higher central section.

At first-floor level, the nine bays take the form of a recessed panel between pilasters with the panels having a dentil detail at their tops. Three of the bays are narrower and six wider with the narrower bays corresponding with the entrance passageways and door to the large central shopfront, and the wider bays corresponding with the standard size shopfronts below. The windows within the bays have 10 lights divided by a single mullion and four transoms, with the top pair of lights arched to fit the window head, they appear to be late-C20 replacements. The windows are in deep reveals set back two stepped brick lengths from the plane of the wall. The surrounds over the window heads are in stone, these follow the jamb of the window down to join a platband which links all the windows at the level of their third transom up from the bottom. Below the eaves is another plain stone platband. Each window has an iron balcony fixed below and above the cornice which acts as a cill.

The east, side elevation is exposed only at the end of Keates Street where in a lean-to porch there is a double door in a pointed arch surround. The west elevation is abutted by surrounding properties. The rear, north elevation to Market Passage is brick rendered to look like stone blockwork, solid with the exception of a pair of double doors in a pointed-arch surround.

INTERIOR: there are two entrance corridors through to the hall from Queen Street. The main hall is one open space spanned by the patent glazing roof. Floors are stone flags. Pairs of stalls under large arches line both east and west sides of the hall, some retaining shop signs and decorative and lettered glazing. The roof is supported by five curved trusses in rivetted wrought iron which cross the whole of the hall from east to west. These trusses are supported by pairs of cast iron columns which are joined by their decorated capitals. The roof trusses spring from the front capitals, while the rear capitals support the round arches over boarded-over windows to the storage areas above the stalls on the east and west sides of the hall. The spandrels of the trusses are decorated with floral designs within circular borders.

The north wall of the hall has six, pointed-arched recessed panels. Below the second from the west of these panels is the double-height enclosed porch housing steps up to the doors to the main entrance on Market Passage. In the third arch from the east is an inscribed stone commemorating the opening of the Market Hall in 1879. Some later stalls have been added against this north wall.

The ground floor level of the south elevation is the backs of the Queen Street shops. It is irregularly divided by pilasters and panels which correspond with those of the Queen Street shop units which align with the hall. The spaces between the pilasters have windows and panelled doors, mostly blocked, some with shop signs. The eastern and westernmost sections contain doorways through to Queen Street. At first floor level are five symmetrically arranged large, three-over-two sash windows.

History

In 1877 Burslem’s Local Government Board sanctioned loans of around £25,000 for a new market hall. This sum covered the costs of land and a building incorporating shops to the street frontage with offices above them. The resulting Gothic style hall was designed by EM Richards, the local board’s engineer and surveyor. Messrs H and R Inskip of Longton carried out the brick and stonework, and Messrs Hill and Smith of Brierley Hill constructed the glazed roof which used WE Rendle’s (1820-81) new patented system.

A memorial stone containing coins and a newspaper of the day was laid on the 13th March 1878 by the local MP, Mr Robert Heath, and the hall was formally opened on 14 August 1879 by Alderman Thomas Hulme, Burslem’s first mayor. The opening ceremony was of some scale, demonstrating the civic pride invested in the new building. Contemporary newspaper reports recorded large crowds turning up to view a procession to the new market formed by the fire and police brigades and the rifle volunteers and their band.

In the late 1990s murals were added to the Market Passage and Keates Street entrances. The market closed in 2003 after its condition was judged unsafe. Since that time the Queen Street shop units have had a range of commercial uses, and the floor above the shops has been in use as flats.

Reasons for Listing

The Market Hall, Queen Street, Burslem, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest:

* it is an early example of a large market hall using new structural technologies of a wide span iron roof and patent glazing system;

* the design uses Gothic style to effectively realise the building’s function as a market hall in a constrained town centre plot;

* the market hall survives much as built and retains its original patent glazed iron roof and stalls, and good quality detailing.

Historic Interest:

* the building was at the centre of Burslem’s commercial life for over a century and gives insight into the town’s wealth, status and civic ambition in the late-C19.

Group Value:

* the market shares group value with the neighbouring near contemporary Wedgewood Institute as well as the adjoining shops at 36-40 Queen Street.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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