Drapers Hall

You can see the damage here. Nice pictures,Tony. Do you think these connected with the the old underground toilets nr the old no.1 and 11 bus stops?

Hi Adrian, what a superb photo. I hope you don't mind, but I've annotated it to show three locations that I managed to get "present day" photos of yesterday. Here I've mark three distinct roof areas:- #1. This is the dome just inside the main entrance, part of it is boarded over now, but its features can be clearly seen here. #2. This is what is called "The Snooker Room". Although the present day image doesn't show clearly the "windows" as seen in Adrian's pic, you can just make out the outline of the boarded up framework below the "lowered" central ceiling. #3. This is the Main Hall. Its orientation takes a bit of getting your head around, as it's not obvious from the inside that this wonderful grand hall runs across the back of the building. I will try and get more into a gallery in the next couple of days.

What is the hall used for now? Re the photo, I'm not sure how I came by it, I downloaded it a long time ago and cannot remember where from.

Adrian, the building is not used at all at the moment In fact it's basically up sale - any offers? Sorry I didn't answer your question - ill try and find out for you regarding the connection to the toilets.

I think that area was bombed quite badly, as there were factories in the vicinity.

Hi all. This is fascinating. I well remember the toilets adjacent to the No.1 & No.11 lay-by bus stop. Thank you for the photos which are fabulous. I had no idea.

Are you sure you want to share that with everybody, Philip????

Hi Midland Red. I was glad of my school bus pass in those days as I remember a boy wanting to use the toilets & the conductor told him he would have to pay again to get back on the bus. When you have to go, you have to go. Maybe the destination blind should have had "relief" displayed on it.

Great stuff all Adrian's photo has been posted on here before - very interesting. You can tell how badly the area was hit by the markers next to the Herbert denoting residents over the years up until the war when it all disappeared. Google Mapped

I can remember them being an art gallery, but I can't remember if it was before or after the Herbert opened.

Thanks for that google link Neil, I have just had a look. It all looks so different to how I remember it. Browns is where the underground toilets/art gallery used to be. I don't think I have ever seen that area so quiet, it was always a very busy area back in the 50s and 60s.

It was the original Herbert Art Gallery although I suspect its real purpose was as an air raid shelter for council officials.

Thanks so much for sharing your pictures of the Drapers Hall, it really is an attractive building and such a shame it isn't being used for anything! I had a Google and it was built in 1832 for the Drapers Guild which at the time was a very powerful group of people. Cheers

Thanks Dutchman, you're a gem, brilliant info as always.

Thank you for your kind words; Chaingang & Barbinoz Here's a link to a floor plan of Drapers Hall. I have added annotation to the TITLES of most photos so that people can match them up to this floor plan and give you some idea where each feature resides. There is also a plan of the basement available from the same source - except it is totally undecipherable - making it pretty impossible to link to any of my photos. Sorry!