1898 – Conservative Club, Nuneaton

Now much altaered.

The new Conservative Club premises at Nuneaton shown on this illustration are being built. The contractor is Mr. T. Smith, of Chilvers Coton, Nuneaton. The club is to occupy the corner site formed by New Bridge-street and Bondgate. Four floors of the building are to be devoted to the use of the members. In the basement a double skittle-alley occupies the side of site next right-of-way, the remainder of this floor being occupied with beer and wine cellars, heating cellar, and coal store. On the ground floor (which is raised 3ft. above the general street level for the better lighting of the basement) , are situated the ordinary members’ billiard-room (for two tables) coffee, reading, and smoke rooms, bar, lavatories, secretary’s office, and entrances, the principal being from the angle and a side entrance from New Bridge-street. A spacious arcaded entrance-hall contains the wide, open staircase
leading to the upper floors. On the first floor, of primary importance is the assembly-hall, to accommodate 500, with gallery at one end, entered off landing of upper stairs. The ceiling of hall is proposed to be a third of the way down from ridge, giving as great cubic contents as are consistent with acoustic requirements. The wood trusses, which are of the hammer-beam type, with moulded ribs, show beneath the ceiling, and spring from stone corbels of moulded section. Retiring and ante-rooms, with their attendants’ offices, are conveniently situated and easily accessible from hall. A separate staircase, leading from side entrance to hall, enables the latter to be used without any inconvenience to the other users of the club premises. The ante-room, being situated at the angle of the streets, a glazed door opens on to a speech-gallery or balcony contrived over the front entrance. The other apartment which
completes the first floor, is a spacious committee-room on the New Bridge-street side, with open loggia the extent of its front, having hammered iron ornamental balconettes. The second floor contains the honorary members’ billiard-room, with ante-room and lavatory running the -whole length of New Bridge-street front. By the formation of the roof, accommodation has been provided for a caretaker in same ; the kitchen with its attendant offices also being here placed, a lift could be conveniently arranged from the kitchen to the ground floor with intermediate services to the principal rooms on the first and second floors. The building will be heated by hot water on the low-pressure system, and lit by electricity. The materials are red brick, with Bath stone dressings, roof covered with Carnarvon slates, all woodwork internally to be of deal stained dark green ; the windows filled with iron casements and leaded lights to open as required for ventilation. The entrance-hall floor is to be laid
with terrazzo, the corridor tiles, the basement cement, and the remaining floors wood ; that over honorary members billiard-room will be made soundproof by silicate cotton packing, so that no noise can be transmitted from caretaker’s apartments. The roofing will be rendered damp-proof by a layer of under-slating. The building is designed as a Free Classic treatment, a feature being made of the angle, which is boldly relieved by the speech balcony over doorway, and, further, by culminating in an octagon at the top, with pointed roof, forming a base for flagpole. The assembly-hall has been taken advantage of to form the feature in the Bondgate elevation, a semicircular glazed tympanum accentuating the three central lights of the window, and the gable formed producing the desired balancing effect. The New Bridge-street elevation has some relief imparted to it by the committee-room loggia, with its stone arches and columns, and the airy, curved -wrought-iron work avoids a tendency to overpowering effect. The architect is Mr. Charles William Smith, R.S.A., Grantham, whose plans were selected in the recent competition, and the work is now in hand. “
The Building News, June 3 1898