Stockport Sunday School Centenary Memorial Hall

The award has been made in the competition for the Sunday School Centenary Memorial Hall at Stockport. There were sixteen sets of designs submitted. and the drawings are on view this week at Pendlebury Hall. The building is to seat 3,000 persons, and cost is fixed at £15,000. including twenty-four classrooms. Messrs. Potts, Son, and Hennings, of Manchester, are the architects of the selected design. Mr. A J Murgatroyd, of Manchester, was the assessor. [Building News 5 May 1905 page 660]

STOCKPORT SUNDAY SCHOOL NEW HALL - The above view or the Hall which was determined upon as the main feature of the Commemoration of the centenary of the school building at Duke-street is from a sketch supplied By Messrs Potts Son and Hennings of Manchester and Bolton, authors or the premiated designs. Mr. Briggs, of Stockport, is the contractor. It was intended originally that the main entrance to the new Hall should be from the upper part of Duke-street. Further consideration of the somewhat steep gradient of that street led to the conclusion that a more, convenient approach could be obtained from London Place. and that by erecting the main length of the new building along Duke-street, instead of along London Place, more satisfactory communication could be made with the existing structure. The part of the building to the extreme left. hand of the sketch comprises a new Infant School. new Library, more commodious premises for the Publication Department and for the Savings Bank. The rest of the building will consist of the new Hall and some supplementary rooms such as vestries and the like. The large Hall is on the ground floor, and advantage has been taken of the natural slope from London Place towards Wellington-street. The main entrance in London Place will have an ample Crush Hall with cloak rooms. Above the Crush Hall there is to be a gallery, which will also extend the length of the Hall on either side. The gallery can be entered by staircases at London Place, and there will be communications on the gallery level with the existing main building and with the wing or senior classrooms. The platform will naturally be placed at the farther end of the hall from London Place. As regards size, the aim of the Building Committee has not been so much to provide for more persons than now gain admission to the Large Room but rather to provide 20th century accommodation for the same number. The new Hall is actually shorter than the present Large Room, but it is wider and considerably loftier; and the space available for seats is expected to be about 60 per cent. greater in the new Hall than in the Large Room.  …… The Mayoress Stockport, Mrs. Henry Bell, has kindly acceded to the invitation of the committee, to lay the foundation-stone or the new Hall, and the ceremony will take place on the afternoon of Saturday, 5th October. [Stockport County Express - Thursday 22 August 1907 page 2]

Reference    British Architect 5 May 1905 Page 311
Reference    Building News 5 May 1905 page 660
Reference    Stockport County Express - Thursday 22 August 1907 page 2 with illustration