Town Hall

Town Hall and municipal offices on Marine Road. The foundation stone was laid on 7th August 1931 and the building officially opened on 7th June 1932. It was designed by the Borough Engineer P.W. Ladmore, with the facade designed by Alfred William Stephens Cross MA, V-PIAAS, his son Kenneth Mervyn Baskerville Cross MA, FRIBA, and C. Sutton. The building was made possible through funding from the Unemployment Grants Committee, with planning beginning in 1930. The construction cost over £40,000, and the foundation stone was laid by the then Mayor Councillor J.S. Cordingley J.P. on 12th August 1931.

The structure is steel-framed with concrete flooring and internal walls of hollow fire clay blocks. It is built in red-brown rustic brick in 1:3 English bond with Darley Dale stone details including portico, architraves and aprons to windows, quoins, and parapet. White glazed bricks line the upper floor walls facing onto the council chamber clerestory windows. The roof is a shallow pyramidal glazed design with ventilator, which was restored around 1980. The original flat roof was covered with natural rock asphalt.

The building is 13 by 16 bays in rectangular plan with two storeys over a raised basement. It displays 18th century classical style with symmetrical design. A grand entrance hall and central single-storey top-lit council chamber form the interior core. The facade features a single-storey Tuscan portico to the central three front bays, comprising a flight of six wide steps and paired columns in antis with a triglyph frieze and balustrade with urns. Paired pilasters flank the central entrance doors, which have semi-circular sockets for ceremonial halberds presented in 1905. Metal window frames are of Austral type, with some replaced. A tall flagstaff originally surmounted the facade but was temporarily removed due to water penetration at the base of the supports.

The rear elevation has plain fenestration with stone sills and brick flat arches, an open well to bay 7 with steps down to the basement, and four cast iron moulded posts with an altered handrail. The left return features a right quoined bay with deep eaves and parapet matching the front, with the remainder slightly lower. The entrance bay 3 has ten stone steps with cast iron and bronze handrails, panelled double doors, an overlight with geometric tracery, and a moulded stone surround. Tall three-pane windows match the rear, with square-section cast-iron downpipes bearing the Lancashire rose on hoppers. The right return is similar to the left, with nine steps to the entrance door at bay 14 and a replaced left handrail.

The ground floor layout includes a square lobby with original central pendant lamp and glazed screen to the main staircase hall, entered through panelled double doors. The entrance hall features cream and light blue terrazzo flooring with a central mosaic panel of the town shield and motto 'BEAUTY SURROUNDS. HEALTH ABOUNDS'. Wheelchair ramps now obscure curved corner steps. Square section columns with later decoration support a cantilevered stone divided staircase with a cast iron balustrade featuring scrolled panels and ramped mahogany handrails. The stairwell is lit by three round-arched stained glass windows.

Double doors to left and right open into the Council Chamber and magistrates' courtroom. This room has four corner columns carrying a deep moulded beam which supports clerestory walling with roundels and square windows containing original yellow and blue geometric patterned glass. The walls have moulded 'acoustic' plaster panels and the ceiling features square glazed panels with decorative bands in red, green, yellow and blue. Original glass cube pendant lights hang from the ceiling. Wall gas lights throughout the building take the form of bronze plaques with relief decoration of laurel leaves supporting torches with white glass globes.

A fixed oak partition with three glazed leaded glass panels and a central door, divided by paired pilasters, screens the entrance to the chamber from the rear corridor and magistrates' rooms. Original furniture survives throughout, including black oak desks, chairs with green hide upholstery, and tables—both straight and curved—designed to be moved to suit the number of members meeting. The chairs feature carved coat of arms motifs on their backs. The tall chairs and mayor's or magistrate's desk survive with original lights and bells.

The outer rooms are reached from a corridor running around three sides of the building, which also links two secondary staircases to the rear left and right. These stairs are single straight flights with roll-moulded mahogany handrails and bronze landing balustrades with scrolled decoration.

On the first floor, front, the mayor's private room and anteroom has a built-in oak cupboard. The main front suite comprises the mayor's parlour and two committee rooms separated by folding panelled oak screens with pedimented door surrounds. The panelled plaster ceiling has been removed to reveal steel joists and concrete infill. The left offices include the original open and well-lit drawing office. The right-hand corridor rooms include the original kitchen and general office.

The basement is reached from the rear stairs and includes steel doors to a former cell or strong room and the base of the rear boiler house chimney.

Interior fittings survive throughout the building, including panelled doors, window frames with pivot opening or side casement mechanisms, radiators, and light fittings. Heating was provided by a low pressure hot water system with a gas-fired boiler.

A separate garage stands approximately 20 metres to the north-east. It is a single-storey brick structure of five bays with concrete pillars supporting flat lintels and a parapet above. Originally open-sided, it now has panelled doors and inserted windows at the far right.

Kenneth Cross (died 1968) worked extensively for local authorities in London including Westminster, Marylebone, Finsbury, Finchley and Islington, as well as for Bournemouth and Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was an expert in the design of indoor swimming baths and wrote two books on public baths. He also designed for the Barbers' Company, the Grocers' Company, the Whitgift Foundation, St John's College Cambridge, Plymouth Commercial Bakery, and Barclays Bank. He later became President of the RIBA. The Morecambe and Heysham Municipal buildings were illustrated in The Builder on 19th August 1932.