3-021-728 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Victoria Hall and Assembly Rooms, Newport, Monmouthshire, 1868. Assembly Rooms '...built and fitted up, at a cost of £12,000, by Mr. Henry Pearce Bolt...with a noble portico carried up to the external height of the building, and supported on six Corinthian columns, with well-carved capitals, surmounted by a prominent and admirably-executed figure of her Majesty [Queen Victoria], with leonine supports. The whole is in freestone, the details and carving being very carefully and artistically worked - and this fact is especially noticeable, as a saving of several thousand pounds would have been effected had plaster mouldings been substituted for freestone...on the ground floor is a large room now used for the County Court and other purposes, a number of offices, well-arranged Turkish, warm, and swimming baths, a gymnasium, and also a reading-room for the use of visitors to the baths...The architects are Messrs. Habershon and Pite, of London, represented by Mr. Fawckner; and the builder is the enterprising proprietor, Mr. Bolt, aided by local workmanship'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.