Burslem Building Improvement Scheme (THI 3) Progress of works Wedgwood Institute, Queen Street, Burslem Art school and library originally completed in 1863 with additions in 1869 and 1880 - this Grade II* listed brick and terracotta building has a richly ornamented façade and is arguably the most impressive looking building in the city. It is currently closed and some emergency repairs have been carried out. Proposals for the future use of the building are being discussed. Built in stages from 1859, by public subscription, and at an estimated cost of around £4,000, this remarkable building is named after Burslem’s iconic pottery-maker Josiah Wedgwood. The building stands on the site of the Brick House Works, which were rented by Wedgwood from 1762 to 1770. Original plans for the institute were created by G.B Nichols. The foundation stone was laid on 26th October 1863 by future Prime Minister William Gladstone. The amazing façade features designs by Robert Edgar and John Lockwood Kipling (father of novelist, Rudyard Kipling). It memorialises Wedgwood and celebrates the achievements of the enlightenment movement. It includes inlaid sculptures of pottery workers and processes, zodiac-sign mosiacs, terracotta panels that illustrate each month of the year, and a statue of Wedgwood himself. It also features portraits of Wedgwood’s fellow ‘principal’ Lunar Society colleagues - sculptor John Flaxman, scientist Joseph Priestly, business partner and industrialist Thomas Bentley. The Wedgwood Institute became a centre of excellence for the arts, sciences and business. It provided classes for the working men of the community. Notable students included novelist Arnold Bennett, ceramicist Graham Moorcroft, and physicist/ inventor Oliver Lodge. Art students ceased using the institute in 1905 when the Burslem School of Art was opened. The institute remained a library until 2008 and has been used as an annexe of Staffs University and Stoke- on -Trent College during its lifetime. The Wedgwood Institute has been disused since 2010. SCHEME DETAILS - Development of the Wedgwood Institute Business Plan with the Princes Regeneration Trust is continuing. An invitation from English Heritage has been forthcoming requesting that an application for EH funding be made and to agree an approach to securing all the required match funding to deliver up to £700k of initial works for the building, with a view to progressing the full refurbishment scheme over the next four years. TOTAL COST OF SCHEME - £700,000 OUTPUTS - floor space to be brought back into use and historic fabric restored. TIMETABLE - To be announced. ARCHITECT CONTRACTOR To be announced. To be announced. The Leopard, 21 Market Place, Burslem The Leopard is one of Burslem’s most famous and interesting buildings. In continuous use as a public house since at least 1765 (and refronted c.1830), the Grade II* listed building is famed for, amongst other things, a significant meeting in March 1765 between promoters of the Trent and Mersey Canal, including Josiah Wedgwood and James Brindley, as Burslem cemented its place in the history of the Industrial Revolution. In the early 1800s The Leopard was a major coach station and ticket office on the Post Coach Express route, which operated from Liverpool to London and The Potteries to Manchester. Passengers could connect to Exeter and Bath via this service. The pub was also used as a parcel depot. During the 1870s a three-storey extension was added and The Leopard became a hotel with over 50 rooms. Unfortunately, the ambition for the hotel to become the 'Savoy of the North' faded. The rooms were sealed off between the 1930s and 50s and preserved exactly as they had been left. These rooms and other interesting features, such as the hidden tunnels, have become popular attractions. SCHEME DETAILS - The historic restoration of the external fabric of the building included overhaul of the roof and chimneys, windows along with replacement lead work, rainwater goods, repairs to existing render, rainwater good (cast iron), masonry and render repairs. TOTAL COST OF SCHEME - £215,040 (including grants £37,203 from Heritage Lottery Fund and £67,041 from the European Regional Development Fund). OUTPUTS – floor space to be brought back into use, roof repairs, structural repairs and historic fabric restored. ARCHITECT CONTRACTOR TIMETABLE – Complete. CDT Architects Wensley Contracts Clerk Bank House The Works Clerk Bank, Leek Alcester Road ST13 5HE Redditch. B98 9EJ The Old Town Hall/Ceramica, Market Street, Burslem The Old Town Hall was completed and opened in 1857 on the site of the previous town hall. The older building is a Grade II* listed building and was recently designated by the Victorian Society as one of the most important civic buildings in the UK. An extension was completed in 2003 on the land where the bandstand, gardens, public toilets and Market House once stood and both buildings were opened as ‘Ceramica’, a pottery heritage centre and exhibition space. The centre closed in 2011. Plans to open the buildings as an annexe to Haywood Sixth Form College are currently being discussed. Town map – 1851. Showing the location of the buildings. SCHEME DETAILS - this will not be funded via the European Regional Development Fund but it is a significant project for the town as a whole. Architects are working on the scheme and the outcome of recent funding bids is eagerly awaited. TOTAL COST OF SCHEME - To be announced. OUTPUTS - floor space to be brought back into use and historic fabric restored. TIMETABLE - To be announced. ARCHITECT CONTRACTOR wood|goldstraw|yorath To be announced. Churchill House Regent Road Hanley Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire 15 St. John’s Square, Burslem Situated within historic St. John’s Square, this early nineteenth century listed building has connections to one of Burslem’s most famous sons, novelist Arnold Bennett. As a boy he occasionally lived here with his maternal grandparents, the Longsdons, who ran a drapery shop from the property. He featured it as ‘John Baine’s Shop’ in his 1908 novel ‘The Old Wives’ Tale’. The three-storey Georgian building has housed various businesses, including a number of retailers and a betting shop (where bookmaking business Bet365 began). It is currently empty and in a very poor state of repair, particularly the water-damaged side wall of the property situated on William Clowes Street (formerly Church Street). Town map – 1851. Showing the location of the building. SCHEME DETAILS - an architect has been appointed and is currently producing the initial specification for external and internal refurbishment of this historic listed building, which will be finalised in May 2014. TOTAL COST OF SCHEME - To be announced. OUTPUTS - floor space to be brought back into use and historic fabric restored. TIMETABLE - To be announced. ARCHITECT CONTRACTOR Anthony Short and Partners LLP To be announced. 34 Church Street Ashbourne Derbyshire, DE6 1AE 2 – 8 Queen Street, Burslem – The Old Co-operative Situated along the westerly edge of Swan Square and Queen Street, ‘The New Co-operative Emporium’ department store was commissioned by the Burslem Co-operative Society and was planned and designed by architects Watkin and Maddox. It was completed and opened in 1932. The co-operative, a subscription-based society for the mutual benefit of members, was formed in Burslem in 1901 by working men from the community. They opened a small shop in Newcastle Street to ensure subscribers paid fair prices for decent food and goods. Members also enjoyed a range of other benefits, including a share of any surpluses in the form of dividends on purchases. Many subscribers would allow these dividends to accumulate. Share capital at the end of 1901 was £175. By 1932 it was £1,209,533 and membership had gone from 200 in Burslem to 50,000 across North Staffordshire. This impressive Art Deco building was a product of the society’s great success and subsequent expansion. The Co-operative store traded in the building until the late twentieth century. Since then parts of the building have been used for office space, small retailers have operated from the lower floors, and it remains home to a snooker club. The lower floors have been vacant for a number of years now. Taken from a 1932 Co-operative pamphlet advertising the new building: A broad flat architrave of pearl-black polished granite "frames " the shop windows the framings and transomes to which are of polished staybrite steel. Grey glazed terra-cotta has been used for the architraves to the windows above running through the two floors with the cast Iron breast fillings between. The frieze and cornice are also of grey terra-cotta, a small amount of ornament being introduced which is finished with green glaze. The steel stanchions dividing the bays are covered with a hard multi-coloured hand-made brick. All the windows are of steel specially designed by the architects with ample opening casements. The basement floor is finished with oak blocks. A broad staircase, finished in terrazzo, connects the storeys, with an electric passenger lift to the staircase well. A NOVEL feature is the furniture display window, the floor of which is connected to an electric lift. This enables the furniture display to be arranged in the Work in progress basement and raised to the window display level, and permits constant changing with the minimum of disturbance. SCHEME DETAILS - The works which are proposed and are for the overhaul/replacement of the roof, external building repairs and alterations and minor refurbishment to the ground floor to enable letting for retail use as four units. The remainder of the building is proposed to be subject to comprehensive refurbishment primarily for office/workspace. TOTAL COST OF SCHEME - £451,000 OUTPUTS - 572 sq.m (ground floor only) brought back into use and historic fabric restored.