Redhills Durham Miners Hall

Summary

The Durham Miners' Association offices and assembly hall, known as the Pitman's Parliament. 1913 to 1915, by H T Gradon, in Edwardian Baroque style. Constructed of bright-red brick with ashlar plinth, quoins and dressings. The building comprises a linear front range aligned east to west containing offices and committee rooms, connected at the centre by a linking stairhall and lobby to a square rear range containing the assembly room.

Reasons for Designation

Redhills Durham Miners Hall is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a striking and well-detailed Edwardian Baroque composition, which reflects the status and power of the largest and most powerful miners’ trade union in England;
* a barely altered plan-form that reflects in its architecture the two separate, but closely related, functions of day-to-day union business and the provision of an impressive assembly space;
* the office range retains a high-quality and largely complete interior decorative scheme with a combination of oak, marble, ironwork, and plaster decoration;
* the assembly hall is a unique space adorned with high-quality features throughout, including timber fixtures, stained glass, and plasterwork;

Historic interest:

* a powerful symbol of the emergence of a social reform movement, which laid the groundwork for the welfare state that would later be enshrined in parliamentary statute;
* in a national context, Redhills is considered the most outstanding example of trades-union inspired architecture in England.

History

From the Industrial Revolution to the 1960s, coal mining played a crucial role in the UK’s economy, employing hundreds of thousands of men and producing millions of tons of coal annually. The hardships faced by miners and their families paved the way for a movement of social reform, which sought to improve their living and working conditions and which predated the welfare state and left a lasting impact on society. This movement, which advocated for better wages, safer working conditions, and improved healthcare, laid the groundwork for the welfare state that would later be enshrined in parliamentary statute.

The Durham Miners' Association (DMA) was formed in 1869. It was a powerful trade union representing pitmen in the Durham coalfield. It quickly became the largest miners' union in the UK, fighting for safety, wages, and social reforms. By the early-C20 it had outgrown its original building on North Road, and a larger building was required where several hundred delegates from all the collieries in County Durham could assemble. The site at Redhills became available after a failed attempt to build a school and training college in 1906. Its purchase by the DMA was completed on 30 August 1913.

The architect for the failed school, Henry T Gradon (1885-1917), was retained by the DMA to design their new headquarters, which was to be a building and interiors of sufficient grandeur and quality that the DMA could meet wealthy coal owners on equal terms. Detailed plans for the building are dated 13 November 1913. Henry Gradon designed numerous buildings locally, but Redhills was his last and most ambitious project and the only to be listed. The contractor, J Pattison of Gateshead, built it between 1913 and 1915 at a cost of around £30,000. Gradon’s ill health meant that completion of the project was supervised by his assistant Edwin Rutherford. Redhills opened on the 23 October 1915 with a ceremony, inaugural meeting, entertainment, and a tea for invited guests at the Rose and Crown Hotel.

At its heart was the Pitman’s Parliament, a unique assembly with a seat for a delegate from all 297 Durham pits. It provided a platform for miners to voice their concerns and shape the future of their industry. This democratic institution allowed miners to debate and pass resolutions on various issues, from pay and working conditions to broader social and political matters in the pre-Welfare State. Collections of documents, art works and memorabilia are also retained at the building, which is also the home of the Durham Miners' Gala. Despite the decline in coal mining across the Durham Coalfield over the last half century and the removal of significant physical evidence, the building remains a focal point for a culture and way of life.

The offices and hall are little altered since the opening day in 1915 save for minor insertions including lifts and WCs and work to heating systems. In the early C21 the building received lottery funding for its refurbishment and extension to form a heritage, culture, and education centre. The work started in July 2023 and finished in November 2025.

Details

MATERIALS: bright red brick with ashlar plinth, quoins, and dressings; slate roof coverings.

PLAN: T-shape with an east-west linear front range containing offices, committee and private meeting rooms, connected at the centre by a linking stair hall and lobby to a square rear range containing the miners' hall. Each floor has offices to the front and sides, and a spinal corridor behind.

EXTERIOR: the building is set upon a site that slopes from west to east and has two-storeys with a cellar to the eastern half. The front range has 17 bays with segmental pediments over the projecting second and third bays from each end, which are supported on channelled angle pilasters. The projecting central entrance bay has a domed, round porch of Ionic columns; above angle pilasters frame a Tuscan order of columns in antis, containing a large Venetian window with a double key rising into an open pediment. All three pediments are dentilled, the outer ones contain round windows in swags and scrolls. The rusticated ashlar ground floor has round-headed windows with impost string and double keys, and brick above the impost string. The first floor has windows in plain architraves with bracketed sills and cornices. Windows retain their original sash and casements. There is a roof balustrade, and a high central dome on consoles with a top louvred lantern and a small swept dome and spike finial.

The right and left returns have three bays which are similarly detailed to the main elevation. The rear elevation is red brick with minimal ashlar adornment with a hipped roof and ridge chimney stacks. It has regularly spaced mostly square-headed windows to the first floor and a mixture of square and round-headed windows to the ground floor; some windows have stained glass motifs. The attached meeting hall is a double-height building with minimal ashlar dressings beneath a hipped roof with a central ridge ventilator. Each long side is pierced by five semi-circular windows with a continuous moulded sill band, and beneath are five rectangular-headed windows with flat, brick arches.

A small lean-to is attached to the rear of the hall, and another wraps around the lower parts of the rear and right return. A two-storey WC range with a pitched roof is attached to the west end of the front range.

INTERIOR: the principal circulation spaces of central hallway/staircase/lobby and function rooms such as the ground floor Committee Room and first floor Muniments Room are adorned by oak, marble, ironwork, and rich plaster decoration. Ornate timber fire extinguisher mounts are retained to both floors.

The vestibule has three sets of carved double-leaf wooden doors, with enquiries room and desk and a waiting room to one side. It opens into a cruciform stair hall housing the main staircase which is a square, open-well, with squat balusters and a wreathed wide grip handrail; the hall has marble flooring, polished Hopton Wood stone wall panelling, oak doors and woodwork, high quality metalwork to the staircase, which is top-lit by a domed roof skylight in a stucco ceiling decoration.

The Muniments Room and the Committee Room both contain bespoke designed furniture manufactured by the Durham firm of G Gradon and Sons. The Committee Room has oak panelling and decorative plasterwork, including an ornate coffered ceiling, and bespoke light fitments.

The offices have simple plasterwork and carpentry in the form of skirtings, dado rail, architraves, and varnished wooden floors. There are also multiple cast iron fireplaces within painted Baroque style surrounds of two main types, reflecting the status of their original room use. Original six panel wooden doors have high quality brass door furniture, and most illustrate the original room use in gold lettering; the brass handles are more ornate where they open into principal formal spaces. Several offices retain original functional fittings such as built-in metal strong rooms, early internal telephone systems, and simple air vents to the outside walls. There are two sets of original WCs at the ends of each corridor; these retain their original art nouveau tiling in green and white, tiled floors, original cubicle partitions and doors, and a set of five urinals by Adamsez of Scotswood-on-Tyne. The partial basement houses a C21 cinema.

The rear range 'Pitman's Parliament' is panelled in Austrian Oak, lit above by five multipaned windows to each side, separated from each other by wood and plaster Corinthian pilasters. The arched windows have inset stained glass panels divided by a decorative plasterwork entablature. The shallow-arched ceiling is divided into five panels by painted decorative plasterwork ribs which continue the line of the Corinthian pilasters. The room is filled with four ranks of curved, fixed wooden seating alternating with aisles, and each seat has a number allocated to a particular pit deputy and a foldable writing desk. There is a central timber stage with seating for union officials, and a rear public gallery, also with seating. The hall has been likened to a Methodist Chapel. An original external passage from the lobby to the rear of the stage runs around the west side.

Pursuant to s1 (5A) (b) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the attached C21 extensions, not present on the OS map, comprising a glazed entrance hall, staircase and café, are not of special interest.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

110438

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Roberts, Martin, Pevsner, Nikolaus, Williamson, Elizabeth, The Buildings of England County Durham, (2021)

Websites
Webpage of Redhills Durham, accessed 01-05-2026 from https://redhillsdurham.org/

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.