Ruskin Rooms

RUSKIN ROOMS, DRURY LANE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1388332
Date first listed:
12-Oct-1971
List Entry Name:
Ruskin Rooms
Statutory Address:
RUSKIN ROOMS, DRURY LANE
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Location

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Date:
2000-08-25
Reference:
IOE01/02950/28
Rights:
© Mr J M Pickering. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1388332
Date first listed:
12-Oct-1971
List Entry Name:
Ruskin Rooms
Statutory Address 1:
RUSKIN ROOMS, DRURY LANE

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
RUSKIN ROOMS, DRURY LANE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
Cheshire East (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Knutsford
National Grid Reference:
SJ 75214 78932

Details

KNUTSFORD

SJ7478 DRURY LANE 792-1/3/22 (South side) 12/10/71 Ruskin Rooms

GV II

Reading rooms and fire station, now offices. c1900. By Fairhurst, completed by Walter Aston. For Richard Harding Watt. Render with stone dressings and randomly projecting blocks. Red pantiled roof. Eclectic style, drawing heavily on Italianate sources. EXTERIOR: 3-storeyed, with corner tower projecting at angle and housing entrance to upper floors. Former fire-station in west elevation, an irregular 3-window range. Wide segmental-arched entrance at angle with tower to left now glazed in, with paired tall windows to right. Tall single and 2-light windows above, all with flat stone lintels. Inscribed stone over entrance. Low upper storey stressed with continuous sill band and cornice, 3-light mullioned windows, paired to right and a single window to left all with segmentally-arched heads, the mullions and transoms of the lower sections forming a continuous pattern of balustrading. Stacks to right break the roof line between the windows. Angled tower projects from corner, with oriel window over long windows of 1 and 2-lights. Paired round-arched lights above. Subsidiary octagonal tower in angle with main range with round-arched window in each face and terminating in green scallop-tiled dome. Stone steps against north return of tower give access to stair doorway of rusticated stone beneath projecting pantile-roofed porch. Irregular fenestration to this angled return wall, then return wall of main range with oriel window to second floor, and casements with margin lights to ground and first floor with flanking narrow windows. Stack on rear wall. Heavy wood brackets carry ornate wrought-iron frame of 'Ruskin Rooms' sign projecting from the tower, and the stone alongside the entrance steps is inscribed 'The Ruskin Recreation Rooms'. INTERIOR: not inspected. Part of a remarkable development in Free Style built under the patronage of Richard Harding Watt.

Listing NGR: SJ7521478932

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
476340
Legacy System:
LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Ruskin Rooms

Map

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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