LAST week’s guest building was of course, The Victoria Hall, Settle, and was correctly identified by Clifford Meehan, Mary Myers, and Jim Munday, who added he had recently attended a great gig there.

Victoria Hall is the UK’s oldest surviving music hall, and opened 169 years ago today (Monday). It is a hive of activity, attracting international performers, theatre, comedy, films and family workshops.

During the coronavirus pandemic, it adapted and opened up an outside area where people could continue to meet and be entertained while observing Covid restrictions.

Built in about 1852, the hall was designed by Lancaster based architects, Sharpe and Paley. The architectural practice was responsible for many churches, hotels, public buildings including St Peter’s, Rylstone, built in 1852-53. It also carried out additions to St Mary’s Church, Conistone, and to the Grand Theatre, Lancaster.

Settle Victoria Hall opened on October 11, 1853, thanks to philanthropist Rev James Robinson, a member of Settle Choral Society who proposed that ‘the building should be such as to answer all the purposes of public instruction and entertainment.’

Early shows included recitals of classical music, educational lectures and classes, and popular entertainments.

It was renamed The Victoria Hall around November 1892, and from1919 until 1939, it also operated as a cinema, as The Picturedrome and as the Kirkgate Kinema.

In 1921, it was bequeathed by the Robinson family to Craven District Council.

It was restored in 2000, under the management of the newly-formed Settle Victoria Hall charity.

What about this week’s church, pictured by Philip Winstanley? Suggestions by 8am on Monday to news@cravenherald.co.uk