Portico of Former Stalybridge Town Hall

Portico arch, formerly the entrance portico to the former town hall of 1831, modified in the late 1980s.

MATERIALS: ashlar stone.

DESCRIPTION: not inspected: information from other sources. The west portico of the now-demolished town hall is now (2021) freestanding, with the ground floor of the west gable wall and short lengths of the return walls retained to act as buttresses.

The portico has two outer Tuscan pilasters and two inner Tuscan columns supporting a deep Doric entablature with a plain architrave, triglyph and metope frieze and mutule cornice with a moulded triangular pediment. The bottom of the two columns are protected by painted cast-iron bands. Recessed within the portico is a central full-height, round-headed doorway with pilaster jambs, panelled spandrels and a double giant keystone. The two outer doorways are narrower and lower, also with pilaster jambs, panelled spandrels and giant keystones. Above both doorways is a square window aperture. The portico is flanked by the original ground floor walls of the elevation with the original deep moulded plinth and modern stone coping at cornice level.

The outer pilasters have two modern blue plaques placed by Tameside Metropolitan Borough commemorating Joseph Rayner Stephens (1805-1879), an important Chartist leader who in later life lived in Stalybridge, and the First General Strike of 1842, which originated in the area.