Philharmonic Dining Rooms
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The Philharmonic Dining Rooms is a public house at the corner of Hope Street and Hardman Street in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and stands diagonally opposite the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. It is commonly known as The Phil.<ref name=pye>Template:Citation</ref> It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.<ref name=nhl>Template:National Heritage List for England</ref>
History
The public house was built in about 1898–1900 for the brewer Robert Cain.<ref name="Beckingham2017">Template:Cite book</ref> It was designed by Walter W. Thomas (not to be confused with Walter Aubrey Thomas the designer of the Royal Liver Building) and craftsmen from the School of Architecture and Applied Arts at University College (now the University of Liverpool), supervised by G. Hall Neale and Arthur Stratton.<ref name=pev>Template:Citation</ref>
Paul McCartney performed at the Philharmonic when he was a young musician, and during an impromptu concert in 2018.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Architecture
Exterior
The building is constructed in ashlar stone with a slate roof in an "exuberant free style" of architecture.<ref name=nhl/> It has a combination of two and three storeys, with attics and cellar. There are ten bays along Hope Street and three along Hardman Street.<ref name=nhl/> Its external features include a variety of windows, most with mullions, and some with elaborate architraves, a two-storey oriel window at the junction of the streets, stepped gables, turrets with ogee domes, a balustraded parapet above the second storey, a serpentine balcony (also balustraded) above the main entrance in Hope Street, and a low relief sculpture of musicians and musical instruments. The main entrance contains metal gates in Art Nouveau style, their design being attributed to H. Bloomfield Bare.<ref name=nhl/><ref name=pev/>
Interior
There are 5 floors in total, with the main bar interior decorated in musical themes that relate to the nearby concert hall. These decorations are executed on repoussé copper panels designed by Henry Bloomfield Bare and by Thomas Huson, plasterwork by C. J. Allen,<ref name="Clough2003">Template:Cite book</ref> mosaics, and items in mahogany and glass.<ref name=pye/><ref name=nhl/><ref name=pev/> Two of the smaller rooms are entitled Brahms and Liszt. Of particular interest to visitors is the high quality of the gentlemen's urinals, with pink-marble basins and pink imitation-marble urinal surrounds.<ref>"The Philharmonic Dining Rooms, 36 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BX", Historic England, accessed 2024-03-19</ref>
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Art Nouveau gates in main entrance
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Rose-coloured imitation-marble urinals in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms
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Interior view of the Philharmonic Dining Rooms
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Appraisal
Pollard and Pevsner, in the Buildings of England series, state that it is the most richly decorated of Liverpool's Victorian public houses, and that "it is of exceptional quality in national terms".<ref name=pev/> The Grade I listing means that it is "of exceptional interest".<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Pye describes it as one of Liverpool's "architectural gems".<ref name=pye/>