Town Hall

Grade II*

This imposing town hall was built between 1904 and 1908 to designs by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas, a nationally significant architect who had previously designed Belfast City Hall in 1898. The building was constructed after Stockport became a County Borough in 1888, with the foundation stone laid on 15th October 1904 and the completed building opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales on 7th July 1908.

Exterior

The town hall is built in a free English Baroque style with a front elevation of Portland stone, while the side and rear elevations are brick with Portland stone dressings. The building sits on a sloping site that rises towards the rear on Lacy Street, resulting in three levels: a lower ground floor, upper ground floor, and first floor.

The symmetrical front elevation on Wellington Road South features slightly projecting end pavilions with channelled rustication up to cornice height. These pavilions have round-headed windows at lower ground-floor level and a giant order framing the windows on the two upper floors. Between the end pavilions and the central entrance bay are five-bay window ranges, also with channelled rustication to the lower ground floor and round-headed windows. The upper ground-floor windows have segmental heads, while the first-floor windows have flat heads, topped by a modillion cornice and plain parapet.

The main entrance on the upper ground floor is approached by steps from the street, flanked by low walls carved with scroll motifs. Paired columns support a broken and open segmental pediment that frames a cartouche bearing the Borough Arms with putti on either side. The entrance is set within a double portico with a high channelled rusticated base featuring arched openings that break into the tympani above.

Rising above the entrance is the central tower, which ascends in diminishing stages. It has a solid base with clock faces supporting two tiers of open colonnades with projections at the angles, topped by a polygonal crown and finial.

At the east end of the south side, on Edward Street, stands a grand entrance to the foyer and public hall. This is built in Portland stone with projecting piers featuring channelled rustication and oculi framing an Ionic colonnade. Above and set back is a round-headed window framed by an open segmental pediment, with a cartouche of the Borough Arms flanked by two flat-headed windows. A low, balustraded Portland stone wall runs along the front of the main façade on both Wellington Road South and the Edward Street elevation.

Interior

The main entrance on Wellington Road South leads into a domed, top-lit entrance hall with a grand double-return staircase. The lower ground-floor walls are cased in Brescia and white marble with square Brescia marble columns, and the floor is laid in black and white chequered marble. The staircase itself is constructed of Sicilian marble and features wrought-iron balustrades decorated with bronze wreaths and scrollwork. The staircase rises in a single central flight before dividing left and right at a half-landing to reach a galleried landing on the upper ground floor. Domes and pendentives are supported by monolithic Brescia marble columns. The walls are cased in Brescia and white marble up to dado height, and the domes and ceilings are encrusted with ornate plasterwork.

To the east of the galleried landing lies the council anteroom, which has a row of three glazed domes with pendentives, columns and pilasters, richly ornamented ceiling plasterwork, panelled oak wainscoting, and three-panelled doors with eared architraves and large brass finger plates.

On the south side of the anteroom is the council chamber, distinguished by a large central dome and pendentives with grouped fluted columns at the corners. The chamber contains carved oak furnishings in the style of Grinling Gibbons, created by craftsmen White of Bedford, H H Martyn of Cheltenham, and Goodall, Lamb & Heighway of Manchester. The benches have fronts carved with allegories of Honour, Liberty, Truth, and Justice. The mayor's dais includes a chair and table, and panelling surmounted by the Borough Arms. The chamber is lit by four lunettes containing armorial glass and a scene depicting the presentation of Stockport's first charter. The ceiling is covered in decorative plasterwork. To the east on the same side is a men's lavatory with green marble partitions and urinals by Jennings.

On the north side of the anteroom are three committee rooms that can be united by sliding screens to form a large reception room. Each room has a coved ceiling with ornate plaster diaperwork and a central balustraded glazed dome. They are panelled in oak, with paired square, fluted oak columns with Ionic capitals supporting the cornice above the partition screens. The outer rooms each have a central fireplace in the end wall. The windows contain armorial and pictorial glass depicting the Barons of Stockport.

To the east of the anteroom is the public hall, which has a barrel vault with lavish plasterwork. It is lit by tall round-headed windows on the east side containing armorial and pictorial glass of the Earls of Chester. At the north end is a stage with a proscenium arch featuring large scrolls on each side and a central cartouche. At the south end is an organ loft housing a Wurlitzer Publix One organ—a rare instrument made in America in 1930, one of only fourteen produced. This organ was brought to the town hall from another location at a later date. Behind the stage is an anteroom with stained glass depicting scenes and text from Stockport's history.

The entrance foyer on the south side has a gallery with a central, balustraded opening and a colonnade supporting a dome.

On the west side of the galleried landing, above the main entrance, is a suite of mayoral rooms featuring oak wainscoting, fireplaces with panelled and mirrored chimneypieces, and moulded cornices.

Throughout the public spaces and council rooms, lighting is provided by 17th-century style brass electroliers made by Singers of Frome. The stained glass was created by Bryans & Webb of London, decorative plasterwork by J Tanner & Son of Liverpool with plaster moulding by G P Bankart, stone carving by J J Millson of Manchester, and the furnishings were designed by the architect himself.

Layout

The building has an almost square plan with a carefully designed layout to accommodate both official and public functions as well as office space for council departments. The grand entrance sequence is on the west side on Wellington Road South. The public hall is on the east side on Lacy Street, with an entrance foyer on the south side on Edward Street. The council chamber and committee rooms occupy the centre, separated by an anteroom. This anteroom links the galleried landing of the entrance hall, reached by the grand double-return staircase, with the public hall to the rear, forming a grand processional route. Corridors with outer committee rooms and offices run around three sides on all three floors, with various entrances.