Town Hall Including Attached Railings

Town Hall including Attached Railings

This Town Hall was built in 1933 by the Liverpool architects Briggs and Thornely. It is constructed of Portland stone with brick infill panels at the rear, and is designed in the Classical style.

The building is arranged as 21 bays by 10 bays with 2 internal courtyards. It rises to 3 storeys plus a basement at the front, the basement level being created by the sloping ground. The symmetrical facade consists of 8 bays, then 5 central bays, then 8 bays. The central 5 bays break forward and are topped by a tall square tower.

The rusticated ground floor is separated from the floors above by a band. The central entrance is a square-headed portal with a dentilled cornice, surmounted by anthemion acroteria and a central cartouche with scroll support. Foundation tablets sit to each side. Above, the central 5 bays feature a giant, Corinthian distyle in antis loggia with clasping pilasters on the 1st and 2nd floors. The back wall of this loggia contains 3 tall round-arched windows with glazing bars and an iron balustrade. On either side of the central section, single square-headed windows have small cornices on console brackets with large panels above. The remaining bays have 20-pane casement windows, with smaller 16-pane windows to the 2nd floor. A deep frieze and cornice runs across the facade, with a deep parapet balustraded over the central 3 bays.

The tower consists of 3 reducing square stages. The base is square with corner urns. The 1st stage has a large niche on each face, each containing a square-headed window with fluted Doric colonnettes supporting a full entablature with urns. Below the niche on the facade is a relief carving of the Barnsley County Borough coat of arms with its supporters: a miner and a glass-blower. Corner urns crown the 1st stage. The 2nd stage has a clock face on each side and a Doric entablature with anthemion acroteria. The final stage features a triple group of slender lights above a deep, swagged frieze with acroteria and stepped blocking courses.

The rear elevation shows 5 central bays with a 1st and 2nd floor giant order of square piers and pilasters with ornamental capitals. The centre 3 bays form a loggia, with the lower part (1st floor) infilled with tripled windows. Other windows are casements of the standard type. The left and right return elevations each contain 8 central bays and wider corner bays that break forward slightly. These corner bays are framed at 1st and 2nd floor levels by giant fluted Corinthian pilasters. Corner bay windows on the 1st floor have cornices; the remainder are 16 and 20-pane casements as elsewhere.

The interior features an entrance hall with a central staircase of good quality. The staircase has a decorative cast-iron balustrade with bronze handrail and newels. Dentilled plaster friezes, decorated with anthemion, run around the hall. A glazed dome sits over the stairwell. Terrazzo fluted piers support the structure. The Council chamber is lined with walnut panels and has fluted Corinthian pilasters, along with original fittings and fine detailing.

The attached railings are of Portland stone with square panelled piers and a dwarf wall, continuing around the building front. Heavy cast-iron railings feature round, fluted bars with square bosses, pineapple finials and round section rails. Two fluted, ornamental lamp standards flank the entrance on each side, though these now have later lamp housings.

The Town Hall was opened by His Royal Highness Edward, Prince of Wales on 14th December 1933.