Victoria Hall, Tring

Image: © Gerald Massey Taken: 7 Jul 2009

The Victoria Hall in Akeman Street, erected in 1886 to a design by local architect William Huckvale (1848-1936), set out as in life as a playhouse, failed, and has since had a varied career, serving out part of its time as a pickle factory. Today it houses council offices and provides function rooms. The Hall has a small, but tastefully refurbished auditorium (I understand this to be 36 ft. by 70 ft with seating for up to 500), with a good acoustic, but its small stage and lack of adjacent dressing rooms limit its use for concerts and other entertainments - a great pity. This is another of Huckvale's frontages that doesn't work for me (the Rose & Crown and Zoological Museum being other examples). The stone embellishments (including two orders of Italianate pilasters) don't sit comfortably with the red brickwork (capped by chimney stacks) and give the Hall a pretentious appearance that is out of context with its role and the neighbouring architecture. And (it seems quite naturally in our age) all is at any rate spoiled by the application of a crude sign (on the left of the porch) and a clutter of electrical fittings, not least of which being the ubiquitous burglar alarm.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0