Council House

Council offices built in 1903-04 by architect Herbert C Scaping of Grimsby, engineer Egbert Rushton, and builder Henry Marrows, commissioned by Cleethorpes and Thrunscoe Urban District Council. The council chamber was refurbished in 1936, and the east wing underwent general restorations and internal alterations in 1987-88.

The building is constructed of red brick in English Garden Wall bond with ashlar dressings. The front has a green slate roof, while the rear sections are covered with Welsh slate. A wooden cupola topped with a lead-covered dome rises from the centre.

Style and Layout

The building exemplifies Edwardian Baroque style and is L-shaped in plan. The main central block is three rooms deep with a two-room entrance hall fronting it, flanked by a recessed wing to the left and a longer wing set back to the rear right. The main block rises to two storeys above a basement and spans two, one, and two bays, with recessed lower two-storey wings. The left wing comprises two stepped-back single-bay sections, while the right wing presents a single bay to the front and eight irregular bays along its right return.

Exterior Details

A continuous deep plinth with moulded ashlar capping runs throughout, complemented by moulded stringcourses and ashlar banding. The entrance features a flight of seven stone steps leading to a projecting single-storey enclosed ashlar porch with banded rustication. The porch has a round-arched concave-moulded doorway with triple keystone and impost band, moulded cornice, and balustraded parapet. It is supported by a pair of ashlar Roman Ionic columns rising the full height of the first floor, with husk festoons hanging from the capitals. Dosserets with egg-and-dart cornice carry a deep modillioned broken pediment with panelled soffit. A Baroque cartouche in the tympanum depicts a carved head and fronds, inscribed "1904".

The ground floor features a moulded sill stringcourse and 12-pane sashes set in segmental-headed ashlar architraves with double keys and flush lintels, rising to the moulded first-floor stringcourse. The first floor has similar sashes in square-headed architraves with tall double keys, linked by four flush ashlar bands. A deep Ionic modillioned eaves cornice flanks a central pediment with a blocking course above. Coped gables end the composition. End stacks have flush ashlar bands and moulded cornices.

The central cupola has a tapered square base with moulded cornice carrying a lantern or bell turret with louvred openings, pilasters with scrolled feet, moulded cornice, and a ribbed dome with flagpole finial. The gable ends of the main block and wings display similar decorative details and fenestration, with single windows to each floor and a flush band across each gable. The wing gables feature first-floor windows in architraves without keystones, linked by a flush lintel band with modillioned cornice and balustraded parapet, beneath low-pitched hipped roofs and banded stacks.

Interior

The porch contains an ashlar memorial tablet with egg-and-dart border, draped urns and crest above, and an inscription naming the architect, builder, and others, dated 3 December 1903. Beyond lies an internal entrance with part-glazed panelled double doors in an oak surround featuring an architrave, Ionic pilasters, pulvinated frieze, egg-and-dart cornice, and segmental pediment.

The entrance hall displays a striking black and white diagonal-patterned marble floor and a tripartite arcade to the stairhall with round arches on squat scagliola Tuscan columns. An imperial staircase of cantilever ashlar steps features an ornate cast-iron balustrade of bold Arts and Crafts foliate design. A Venetian stairwindow with Ionic pilasters and archivolt with "Gibbs"-type voussoirs contains stained glass with coats of arms. A moulded cornice runs around the stairhall ceiling, which is topped by a large domed rooflight with ornate glazing bars. Moulded cornices and round-arched openings to the hall and corridors on both floors feature moulded capitals, archivolts, and panelled soffits.

The council chamber occupies the first-floor front. It has a plaster modillioned ceiling cornice with pediment and a segmental-vaulted plaster ceiling with moulded ribs bearing fruit and foliage. Ornate oak fittings include a canopied dais and door surrounds with pulvinated friezes, modillioned cornices, and pediments. The panelled dado features a dentilled rail, with panelling dated 1936 recorded on a brass plaque.

A commemorative plaque in the entrance lobby records the Kingsway improvement of 1901-06, bearing arms in relief and engraved plans of the seafront.