The Drapers' Hall which we see today is at least the third one to have been built on the site. The first recorded Hall was built about 1637, "a dark and gloomy edifice", and taken down in 1775. A new Hall, with a classical facade in stone, incorporating Tuscan pilasters and a rusticated ground storey with arches was then built. It was designed by Henry Couchman. The interior accommodation was far superior to the previous Hall's, and included a ballroom 49 feet long by 25 feet wide. Unfortunately, dry rot soon gained a hold and spread rapidly through all the principal timbers in the building. All attempts to stop its progress failed and the building had to be condemned as unsafe in 1829. Even before this, the Drapers' Company had engaged architects to design a new Hall. In the City Record Office (Acc. 468) plans dated 1828 by T Rickman and HW Huchinson can be see, as well as earlier designs by Stedman Whitwell.
Rickman and Hutchinson's plans, in a "Greek Revival" style, were chosen, and the new Hall was built by John Walthew in 1831-32, opening with a supper and ball on 8 November 1832. The new ballroom measures 60 by 30 feet.
The curving, stone faced wing on the corner was added in 1864 and incorporated a new Card Room. The 1831-32 building originally had no windows in the walls because it was surrounded by other buildings, and relied on dome and skylights in the ceilings for natural light. This was rectified in 1890 when the architect E Burgess removed the two right-hand columns of the protico and inserted a window bay to light the reading room. This did, however, spoil the original symmetry of the frontage. At the same time a new heating system, ballroom lantern skylight and general renovation were undertaken.
The brick-built wing to the south-east, including the dining room with its large projecting window, may have been added in 1890 or soon afterwards (before 1906). The contractor for the 1890 works was Charles Gray Hill, who also built Coundon Court and the Singer Factory in Canterbury Street, Hillfields.
Some of the splendour of the ballroom has been blemished by the erection of partitions to form small offices, but many original features remain - the musicians' gallery, the fireplaces with mirrors over, the pilasters on the wall, the tall, hooded doors and the fine coved ceiling with decorative moulded plasterwork in a Grecian idiom. Similar ceiling decorations can be seen in the old reading and billiard room and the bar. The dining room has large, curved doors and a columned fireplace surround. There is also an extensive area of cellarage.
Information and pictures courtesy of Coventry City Council and the Central Library
Page created 14.9.96 by Ecosaurus: coventry@ecosaurus.co.uk