The Market Hall

The Market Hall, originally a cheese market hall and now serving as a general market, was built in 1854 by Charles Meason, with a tower added in 1871. It is constructed from red and yellow bricks, featuring stone dressing and a metal and glass north light roof. The building has a three-bay front and a 15-bay west return, with a high stone plinth. Yellow brick pilasters with channel rustication form the quoins and separate the three arched openings on the facade, which are now mostly bricked up, except for a small opening in the center bay and a wooden shop front in the west bay. A moulded band on a corbel table supports a segmental center arch with a bucranium keystone and semi-circular flanking arches, all rusticated in the Gibbs manner. Above this, there is a bracketed cornice with a matching pediment over the center bay, flanked by a stone-coped brick parapet wall divided into panels by brick pilasters. The red brick clock tower, with yellow brick quoins and sunken bands every four courses, rises above. Round-headed windows are present on all sides, and the slate mansard roof features clock faces in elaborate stone surrounds, topped with iron cresting. The west return has large bays at the ends and center, with twelve smaller bays in between, displaying similar architectural features to the front but with an open pediment at the center. The interior is noted to have little interest.