The West Memorial Hall, or West Memorial Institute,
[Pevsner, Nikolaus & Geoffrey Tyack & Simon Bradley. ''The Buildings of England: Berkshire''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010, p.480. ][Malpas, John. ''Caversham Names''. Reading: John Malpas, 1995, pp.33-34.] is a
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literature ...
Grade II listed building at 7-9 Gosbrook Road,
Caversham, Berkshire
Caversham is a suburb of Reading, England. Originally a village founded in the Middle Ages, it lies on the north bank of the River Thames, opposite the rest of Reading. Caversham Bridge, Reading Bridge, Christchurch Bridge, and Caversham Lock pr ...
, designed by
Alfred Waterhouse
Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known f ...
. The Hall is a former
Baptist Free Church that has now been converted to apartments.
[West Memorial Hall]
Heritage Gateway, English Heritage. Retrieved 6 March 2011
Architecture
The Hall was designed by the noted Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse in 1865-66 in the
Gothic style. It is positioned gable end to the street and built in red brick with blue brick decorative features including bands above and below a large rose window and an alternating red and blue pattern above the ground floor windows. It also has a distinctive hipped rectangular stair turret to the gallery with external stairs.
[ Flying buttresses may be seen on the outside walls.
In 1911 the Hall was extended on the east side in a similar style to the existing building with a central gable facing the road and a small ornamental cross on the apex of the roof as on the original.
]
Gallery
File:West Memorial Hall buttresses.jpg, Flying buttresses on the west side of the Hall.
File:West Memorial Hall brickwork detail.jpg, A brickwork pattern above the ground floor windows created using alternating red and blue bricks.
File:West Memorial Hall ironwork detail.jpg, An ironwork detail from the 1911 extension to the Hall.
File:West Memorial Hall 1911 extension.jpg, The 1911 extension is in the same style as the original building.
History
The Hall was the original Baptist church in Caversham, and its construction was mostly funded by the Reverend Ebenezer West, principal of Amersham Hall. West also funded most of the cost of building the new Caversham Baptist Free Church a decade later, also by Waterhouse, which stands on the opposite side of the road. After the new church opened, the Memorial Hall was used as a school.[ In 1911 it was extended "...''to find rooms for wholesome recreation and moral improvement for the young men of Caversham, and to increase the space available for religious teaching on Sundays in connection with the Caversham Free Church, of which the late Mr Ebenezer West was so generous a supporter''."
The Hall was Grade II listed by English Heritage on 14 December 1978,][ meaning that it is regarded as "nationally important and of special interest". From 1980 it was the Caversham Dance Centre.][
Around 2000, the Hall was converted into apartments and it is now known as ''The Waterhouse''. In 2010 a planning application to build apartments on an adjacent site was refused by Reading Borough Council, partly on the grounds that the application was not in keeping with the Grade II listed status of the Hall.Reading Borough Council Planning Applications Committee Appeal No. APP/E0345/A/09/2119425/NWF]
Retrieved 6 March 2011.
See also
* List of ecclesiastical works by Alfred Waterhouse
References
External links
Internal images of ''The Waterhouse''.
{{Listed buildings in Reading
Grade II listed buildings in Reading
Former Baptist churches in England
Churches in Reading, Berkshire
Alfred Waterhouse buildings
Churches completed in 1866
1866 establishments in England