The Nicholson Institute

 Joshua Nicholson was the owner of a number of silk mills in Leek, Staffordshire,  UK, in the 19th and early 20th century. He wanted to give the people of Leek the chance to both learn valuable employment skills  and expand their cultural horizons. He funded the construction of an amazing  building  which he used  as the basis for an amazing social enterprise. The Institute he fuonded is still used for its original purpose (very rare for 19th century public libraries). It currently houses a museum, an art gallery, a public library and a Tourist Information Centre and it also has an extension, opened in 1900, to create a 'Silk and General Technical School'. It is currently part of Buxton  and Leek College (part of the University  of Derby group of colleges). Initially  the public library  was only free to those who lived within 6 miles of the building but it has now been taken over by the local authority and is available to anyone  within its jurisdiction.  The local museum and art gallery is very small with a,  rather eclectic,  permanent collection but this is supplemented by temporary exhibitions, both historical and artistic.

Notable, within the permanent collection,  are a framed display  of silk worms and moths, illustrating the source of the town's main economic  activity at the time,  and  taxidermy, in the form of one of the population of Wallabies that have established on the, nearby , Staffordshire Moorlands near Doxey Pool (https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/doxey-pool). Whilst non-local visitors  to the building will probably be aiming for the museum  and art gallery on the top floor it is probably  the building itself which impresses  most of all, both interior and exterior.

The building has an impressive tower with a copper domed roof and an ornately decorated frontage.  The 1900 extension has some amazing  low-relief plasterwork tympana above the windows  illustrating the various subjects originally taught in the college (artist A Broadbent). Internally the Institute has loads of original features including some amazing frescoes on the staircase (best to see these on a very sunny day as the stairwell lighting is not the best).

Despite its typically Victorian "out there" appearance, the Institute is tucked away behind a beautiful 17th century stone-built house called Greystones and it is said that Nicholson  deliberately avoided obstructing  the view of the historic  building partly because of its association with William Morris. It currently carries a plaque that records that ‘William Morris and Leek founder members of The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings saved this building in 1884’.

The Institute and library was built between 1882 and 1884. The architects were William and William Larner Sugden (father and son) who were also responsible for the 1900 college extension and for the adjacent William Carr  Gymnasium which still serves as a sports centre for the college.