Town Hall Including County Juvenile Court Town Hall Assembly Rooms And No 33 Effingham Street

Town Hall including County Juvenile Court, Town Hall Assembly Rooms and No 33 Effingham Street

This civic building complex occupies the full length of Howard Street with returns on Effingham Street and Frederick Street. It comprises civic offices with attached courthouse, assembly rooms and a shop. The structure incorporates some fabric from 1853, but was mostly built in 1896-97 to designs by Mr Lovell of London (as noted in Council minutes from October 1893 and Whites directory 1917).

The building is constructed of deeply-coursed, tooled sandstone with a Welsh slate roof. The composition is irregular, blending Classical and Jacobean details. The Howard Street elevation is mostly two storeys, with a sequence of 1:3:3:4:5 bays, a polygonal projection at the junction with Frederick Street, and six first-floor windows beyond, followed by a right corner bay and six bays facing Effingham Street.

The principal entrance on Howard Street features a rusticated round arch flanked by blocked Ionic columns with a canopy supported on console brackets. Two round-headed sashes to the left have quoined jambs, an impost band and rusticated arches. A large transomed window above has five lights flanked by matching blind panels with upper lights keyed. Two cornices separated by a swagged panel sit beneath a shaped gable with blind arcade. A three-bay block set forward to the left has a rusticated ground floor and quoins above, with three 3-light windows with depressed round arches and round-headed lights. An elaborate Ionic Venetian window features a cartouche and apron, with a blocked archivolt to the central light breaking into a boldly swagged frieze and a modillioned cornice. The polygonal projection at the left end has narrow ground and first-floor windows linked by strips, with swagged aprons to the first floor and pediments with linking cornices.

Four bays to the right of the principal entrance have round-headed sashes to the ground floor with quoined jambs and keyed arches linked by an impost band. First-floor sashes feature apron panels and moulded sills to shouldered and eared architraves with pediments. A cornice with parapet rises to the right as a false gable with blind arcading beneath a finialled pediment; an octagonal turret projection projects to its right. Five bays beyond have a central bay and quoined strip to the right breaking forward. Ground-floor sashes are in blocked architraves with keyed flat arches. Tall cross-windows to the first floor have sill blocks, blocked architraves and pediments; a scrolled pediment crowns the central bay. A cornice with parapet rises as a pediment above the central bay. The corner bay has a twentieth-century shop front to the ground floor beneath a transomed 4-light window flanked by pilasters. A cornice beneath small round-arched lights with keystones supports a parapet with a carved panel inscribed 'TOWN HALL / ASSEMBLY ROOMS'.

The right return contains assembly hall entrances to the right of the twentieth-century shop front. A quoined strip to the left is adjacent to first-floor windows matching the Howard Street facade. Four bays beyond have first-floor windows with aprons and segmental pediments and second-storey windows with keyed architraves, all in quoined surrounds. The cornice and parapet match those on Howard Street.

The left return features a segmental pediment to a door in the polygonal projection. Three windows to the left correspond with bays 2, 3 and 4 on Howard Street. Three 3-light windows to the first floor have transoms and pediments linked by cornices. A doorway to the left is flanked by Ionic columns and features a fanlight beneath a keyed archivolt; matching archivolts flank the adjacent 4-pane sashes. A segmental pediment above the door breaks into the apron of a 3-light transomed window, with a single transomed window to each side, pediments linked by cornice, and a parapet with ball finials. Attached buildings to the left are not of special interest.

The roofs are hipped with a variety of stacks and lanterns. The polygonal projection has a flat roof.

Interior

The Town Hall entrance has a mosaic floor bearing the Rotherham arms and Ionic columns. The Mayor's Parlour features mahogany panelling. Oak panelling appears in other rooms. A decorative ironwork balustrade runs along the stairs, above which is a stained glass stair window with arms. Further stained glass appears in 5-light windows of the Council Chamber, which has ornate roof trusses. The Assembly Hall retains a good iron balustrade to its balcony.

The Assembly Room building was originally constructed as the Rotherham and Masborough Literary Mechanics Institute in 1853. It was extensively refronted when incorporated into the Town Hall complex. Photographs of its earlier facade appear in Neville and Benson, Rotherham As It Was (1976, plate 23).