Inside Spode Blue Room & Art Gallery: The Director's Block Revealed!

I visited the Spode Works in Stoke and had the chance to film inside the Directors' Block which is part of the listed North West Courtyard on the site. Not accessed by the public since 2008, the block includes the original Blue Room and the Roland Copeland Art Gallery
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The buildings to the east of the courtyard are connected to the previous range via a three storey extension over a flat arched passageway. Before closure the building was used as showrooms for the company, replacing earlier ones which fronted Church Street during the C19. The principal range is of three storeys and has an eight bay, roughly symmetrical façade of brick under a hipped slate roof. A projecting flat-roofed entrance porch has been added at the north of the façade as part of the 1930s refitting of the showrooms within. There is a further door placed centrally, flanked by paired windows under segmental arched heads; windows at first floor are also segment-headed whilst those at third floor have stone sills and lintels. There is a slight projecting string course immediately above the windows at ground floor. An arched passageway formerly provided access around an adjacent bottle oven. Internally, the showrooms comprise the `Blue Room', a long room at the front of the building, open to the braced king post roof and housing the famous blue transfer collection of the firm and a larger showroom to the rear.
The 1930s porch gives access to a stair hall, panelled to dado height in light wood with a sweeping stair with a panelled wreathed balustrade surmounted by a brass handrail and lit by a tall arch-headed stair window with margin glazing. This leads to the imposing first floor showrooms housed in a 1930s rear extension. The showrooms are accessed through paired double doors and are panelled with wood block parquet flooring. The doors are rich wood with a contrasting inlay to give the impression of a door panel and have brass door furniture. A deep, gently curving cornice provides a transition to the recessed skylight which occupies most of the ceiling. A series of recessed glass-fronted and panelled niches provided display space for some of the fine collection of Spode pottery retained by the firm, including exceptionally rare examples of their best work.
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