Fancy

Continuing the tour of Appleby buildings we are now walking up Boroughgate towards the castle and here is number 31.

With its fancy bargeboards and Gothic style windows, this looks as if it should be part of a railway station, but it was built as a Mechanics Institute. The Institute was founded in 1848 and this building dates from 1851. By 1894 it had a library of over 2,000 volumes and a reading room supplied with daily and weekly papers and magazines.

It is built in pale sandstone and you might note that it has no front door - the entrance is through the arched carriageway at the side. Note also the clusters of chimneys set on the diagonal. A lovely building which I imagine was very well used in its time.