Details
WORCESTER
SO8455SE FRIAR STREET
620-1/12/270 (East side)
05/04/71 City Museum and Library
with gates
(Formerly Listed as:
FRIAR STREET
(East side)
City Museum and Library
(Formerly Victoria
Institute))
GV II*
Museum and library with gates. 1896, by JW Simpson and Milner
Allen at a cost of around ,25,000. Red brick in Flemish bond
with moulded terracotta tiles and plain tile roof; brick left
end stack, banded and with cornice; cast-iron gates and
balustrade. Free Renaissance style. Irregular plan. 2- and 3
storeys with attic, 3 bays plus tower: from left are 2 tall
storeys, 2 bays with 3-lower-storey bay at right with attic in
gable set back, then corner octagonal 5-stage tower. Central
gable contains clock in elaborate cartouche. 'Victoria Regina'
on cartouches; 'THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE' to central frieze;
'Library and Museum' over entrance.
FACADE: the central, entrance bay breaks forward and has
quoins to angles; flight of steps to cambered-arched opening
and chamfered jambs with hollow- and roll-moulding to head,
with three-quarter engaged Ionic columns and dentil pediment
broken by elaborate royal arms in high relief. Double entrance
gates have 'VR' motif and crown, 2 levels of bars and scrolled
crest. Within are 2 sets of double, part-glazed and panelled
doors. Windows are leaded lights in metal frame casements
throughout. To either side of entrance are 2-light mullion
windows with moulded, eared surrounds and scroll pediments. To
left bay on ground floor a wide 'Elizabethan' mullion and
transom window in quoined surround with 3:3:3 lights, the
middle lights have semi-circular light over containing scroll
pediment, and with scrolled central apron. Above entrance at
first floor a large 2:4:2 window and to left bay are two large
4-light windows, all with mullions and transoms and
segmental-arched lights and on continuous egg and dart sill
band; quoined surrounds and composite pilasters between
windows embellished with 'VR' motto. Continuous modillion
frieze, and pediment to gabled entrance bay with crown at apex
surmounted by figure of Victory. Arcaded balustrade with urns
at left.
Right bay: plinth with moulded band surmounted to ground floor
by 5-light mullion window with cornice. To first floor are two
2-segmental-arched-light mullion windows in eared surrounds
and with central segment. Second floor: three 2-light mullion
windows in tooled surround with egg and dart sill band
continuing from first floor of left and centre bays; banded
pilasters between windows rise to moulded cornice. Recessed
and gabled attic storey has 3-light mullion window with tooled
surround and central pediment. Tower: on wine-glass stem has
inscription plaques to lower stage (see below) then three
single-light transom windows in scrolled cartouche surrounds;
to third and fourth stages a single light; fourth stage
surmounted by decorative band with swags and cherub heads.
Upper stage has 2-light mullion windows with semi-circular
lights over in pilastered surrounds and with swags over,
three-quarter-engaged Doric columns between and ovolo cornice.
Broached spire with cupola surmounted by cornice and weather
vane. Right return to Taylor's Lane has similar, but less
elaborate treatment. 5 unequal bays, 2 and 3 storeys. First
bay of 2 storeys has to first floor a large, 5-light mullion
and transom window with 2 levels of transoms. Then a gabled
bay breaks forward and has entrance: double 6-panel doors in
quoined surround, the shaped hood acts as a balcony to 2-light
mullion and transom window with stick balustrade and further
2-light window; 2 segmental arches over on pilasters; gable
has 5-light mullion window. Third bay has five 2-light mullion
and transom windows with pilaster strips to upper band. Fourth
bay similar to second bay. Fifth bay with further entrance and
mainly 3-light mullion windows.
Left return: 5 unequal bays, 3 with gables, 2 storeys and
attics to gables. Ground floor has mullion and transom windows
of 2 and 5 lights. First stage has three oculi to first bay,
2:3:2 light mullion and transom window to third bay and two
3-light windows to fourth bay. Second bay is blind; fifth bay
has 2 small 2-light mullion windows. Gables have 2-light
mullion windows, except at right in ornate, broken pedimented
surrounds and with aprons. Open arcaded balustrade and finials
to gables.
INTERIOR: main feature a 2-storey entrance hall with square
pillars and Doric frieze at first floor with balustrade around
square well; Ionic pillars to first floor and
compartmentalised ceiling with dentil frieze and modillion
cornice. Stone cantilevered dogleg staircase at right has
squat, squared balusters and wide, shaped handrail.
Renaissance motifs continue to stairs. Mosaic floor.
HISTORICAL NOTE: datestone to right at base of tower
inscribed, 'The Lady Mary Lygon Mayoress opened this building
October 1 1896 The Rt Hon Earl Beauchamp Mayor.'
During the C18 Foregate Street was known as 'the mall' and
Tymbs' Worcester Guide of 1802 notes, 'the Foregate Street
itself, by being well paved and sufficiently broad to admit a
full circulation of air seems to be generally resorted to as a
fashionable promenade.'
Pevsner: describes this as 'a resourceful and animated,
totally asymmetrical composition in a mixed Tudor and Baroque
style'. Simpson and Allen had, earlier in the decade, won the
competition for the Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. This is an
outstanding example of late C19 municipal architecture of this
type, in its eclectic use of style redolent of the municipal
libraries of H.T. Hare, such as Wolverhampton (1902).
The Shire Hall, Statue of Queen Victoria, City Museum and
Library, and Nos 15, 19, 22, 23, 24, 28, Nos 33-46
(consecutive) and No.49, Foregate Street (qqv) form a
significant group. The City Museum and Library also forms a
complimentary group with Worcester College, Sansome Walk (qv).
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner: N: Worcestershire:
Harmondsworth: 1968-1985: 324; Worcestershire Historical
Society Occasional Papers: Whitehead D: Urban Renewal and
Suburban Growth: The Shaping of Georgian Worcester: 1989-: 12;
Tymbs: Worcester Guide: Worcester: 1802-: 60).
