Shire Hall

HOWDEN MARKET PLACE SE 7428 (east side)

12/121 Shire Hall

GV II Market hall. 1872-3 by Hadfield and Sons of Sheffield. Brick in English bond with ashlar banding and stone dressings, plain and fishscale tile roof. Style reminiscent of Low Countries Gothick municipal buildings. Market Hall to rear right and 2 shops to ground floor with public hall above. 2 and 3 storeys, 3 sections, with 3-stage tower to left, 3-bay central section, and dominant gabled section to right. 6-first-floor windows. C20 shop front to left. Single slit window and several decorative ashlar bands to central section. Gable section has 2 pointed entrance arches with central round pier containing C20 board doors, and C20 shop front beneath frieze of decorative tile work to right. First floor: 2-light transomed window and dentilled band to tower section. Central section: long double transomed window to left and 2 shorter single transomed windows to right behind an open-work stone gallery held on console brackets. Dentilled and cogged bands at eaves level above. Gabled section: empty stone statue niche formerly containing statue of medieval chronicler Roger de Hovedon, flanked by 3-light double-transomed windows with stepped continuous hoodmould over. Brick relieving arch. Massive crow-stepped gable containing round-arched lancet with ogee hoodmould with finial. Third floor, to tower only, has clock face with 3 blank shields above. Truncated pyramidal roof to tower. Steeply-pitched roofs to central and right sections, with tall decorative stack rising through front pitch of central section. No internal features of interest. Neave D, Howden Explored, 1979.

Listing NGR: SE7489028283