Former coffee tavern and institute, now shops. A modest building of 1884 by Watson Fothergill. The Duke of Portland leased the site. (1)
The main range has been rendered. Harsh new shopfronts cut through two of the three buttresses. Terracotta panels survive above the first floor windows. Corner tower remains as built and in reasonable condition. (2)
Locally Listed by Ashfield District Council (ADC Ref: 392) (2).
One of (Watson) Fothergill’s Gothic public buildings. The original frontage was fairly plain with large windows, buttresses and a steeply pitched roof or small plain tiles. A two-storey orange-red brick building with stone and blue brick dressings, it has a ridged plain tile roof. At its east end is an octagonal tower with a pointed tiles roof next to which is a large archway through to the yard at the rear of the building. It has two impressive chimney stacks at the tower end…one which is designed like a fluted column with decorative blue brick string courses and ornamental stone projections just below the top. History: The Late C19 saw the rise of the Temperance Movement, promoted by the influence of religious bodies, school teachers a local worthies. To provide the ‘working class’ with alternatives to spending their leisure time in pubs and drinking, the movement sought to provide allotment gardens, free libraries, 9tee-total0 public halls, institutes an coffee taverns and affordable restaurants. It was during this period of the rise of Temperance that the Coffee Tavern and Institute was built in Hucknall. The 1880 OS map shows the site as part of a large house and garden and some open land. The Nottingham Daily Guardian newspaper on 5th August, 1884 carries a report of the opening of the building the previous day. The building had a reading bar, a smoking club and committee rooms and was built on land leased ‘on favourable terms’ from his Grace the Duke of Portland. It estimated the cost of building at around £1,050, the majority of which was raised by public subscription. The Tavern continued to be a strictly temperance meeting place, used by many miner’s officials until it was converted into shops in the 1930s. (3)

<1> Pevsner N, 1979, The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire 2nd ed. (Monograph). SNT4.

<2> White J, 2002, Pers Comm (Personal comment). SNT1529.

<3> 1997, Watson Fothergill:Building Survey Report for 11&11A Musters Road and Coffe Tavern&Institute, Main St, Hucknall (Certificate in Heritage Conservation Module) 1996 (Unpublished document). SNT5697.