The Nan Tait Centre is a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed building located at

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although ''Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly re ...

in the

Hindpool Hindpool is an area and electoral ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. It is bordered by Barrow Island, Central Barrow, Ormsgill, Parkside and the Walney Channel, the local population stood at 5,851 in 2011. The ward covers the entire ...

area of

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

, England. Designed by architects Woodhouse and Willoughby it was built for the Barrow Corporation as the town's new Technical School. The foundation stone was laid on 26 May 1900 and the school was officially opened three years later on 25 August 1903. The Technical School narrowly escaped Luftwaffe bombing during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, although its close neighbour Christ Church was almost completely destroyed in April 1941. In 1970 the technical school was replaced by Thorncliffe School in

Hawcoat Hawcoat is an area and electoral ward of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. Historically part of Lancashire, it is one of Barrow's most northerly wards and is bordered by Roose, Newbarns, Parkside, Ormsgill and the town of Dalton-in-Furness ...

. The result was neglected maintenance and the building fell into a near dilapidated state. Despite the situation, the building was ultimately redeveloped in the early 2000s at a cost of £4 million and was named in honour of Agnes "Nan" Tait (Mayor of the

Borough of Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a local government district with borough status in Cumbria, England. It is named after its main town, Barrow-in-Furness. Other settlements include Dalton-in-Furness and Askam-in-Furness. It is the smallest district in the ...

from 1959 to 1960). The Nan Tait centre is now multifunctional serving as a cultural, exhibition and

arts centre An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues for ...

as well as a general office building. The Barracudas carnival band, Dare Dance,

Capita Symonds Capita Property and Infrastructure (previously Capita Symonds) is a UK multidisciplinary consultancy operating in the building design, civil engineering, environment, management and transport sectors, part of the Capita Group. They employ arou ...

, Barrow Borough Sports Council and Barrow

Register Office A register office or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in England, ...

are all tenants of the centre.

Architecture

The majority of the Nan Tait Centre is two storey, with the exception of the centrally located

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

d four storey tower. The building is red brick and terracotta with a slate roof and is noted for its two large east-facing engravings; one panel depicts six robed females underneath the moto '

Ars Longa Vita Brevis ''Ars longa, vita brevis'' is a Latin translation of an aphorism coming originally from Greek, roughly meaning, "skilfulness takes time and life is short". The aphorism quotes the first two lines of the ''Aphorismi'' by the ancient Greek phys ...

', whilst the other bears the moto '

Labor omnia vincit ''Labor omnia vincit'' or ''Labor omnia vincit improbus'' is a list of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning "Work conquers all". The phrase is adapted from Virgil's ''Georgics'', Book I, lines 145–6: ''...Labor omnia vicit / improbus'' ("Stead ...

' as well as numerous technology-related scenes. Two large gable ends also face onto Bath Street and the centre's car park.

References

{{coord, 54.115408, -3.229696, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title

Nan Tait Centre The Nan Tait Centre is a Grade II listed building located at Abbey Road in the Hindpool area of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England. Designed by architects Woodhouse and Willoughby it was built for the Barrow Corporation as the town's new Tec ...

1903 establishments in England

Architecture

See also

References