Town Hall

This is an outstanding and well-preserved example of a late 19th-century town hall, built between 1890 and 1897 to designs by E.W. Mountford. A rear addition was constructed in 1923 by F.E.P. Edwards in the same style, executed with outstanding sympathy to the original building. The building is constructed of ashlar stone with hipped, gabled and pyramidal slate roofs, featuring various prominent coped side wall and ridge stacks. It is designed in the Renaissance Revival style.

Exterior

The building ranges from three to four storeys plus basements and attics. All windows have stone cross mullions. The plan is rectangular with a corner tower and small inner courtyard.

The symmetrical west front features a steep pitched roof topped with a two-stage octagonal domed lantern, a central entrance gable and projecting gables at each end. The entrance bay has an ornate shaped gable containing a figure and niche, flanked by octagonal turrets topped with domed lanterns. A bow-fronted first-floor balcony with open balustrade stands before a round-arched opening with hoodmould and sculptured crest. Within the recess are two three-light windows. Above are three round-arched windows with fanlights, separated by pinnacled buttresses passing through a cornice, with a balustraded balcony on brackets. Below, steps lead to a round-arched entrance flanked by paired Tuscan columns with heavily block-rusticated bases. The entrance has ornate wrought-iron gates.

On either side of the entrance are two-storey wings with sillbands and a low-relief frieze of figures between floors. These wings have a wreathed main frieze and pierced balustrade. The first floor has on either side three pedimented three-light windows, with three round-arched four-light windows below fronted by a balustrade. The end bays feature on the first floor a canted oriel window with a four-light Ipswich window under a segmental pediment. Above is a canted balustrade with pierced central section and dies with pinnacles. The coped gables have finials and round-arched openings flanked by octagonal turrets topped with domed lanterns. The ground floor has a round-arched four-light window with a basement opening below.

At the left end stands a canted hipped projection with plinth, first-floor cornice and balustrade. It is two storeys plus basement with a three-window range. The first floor has three round-arched single-light windows, with a similar window to the angle and the left return. Below are two pedimented cross casements, flanked to the left by a pedimented niche, then another window to the return. The basement has two small single-mullion windows.

The square corner tower has three stages with string courses, traceried frieze and cornice. The second stage has three vertical strips corresponding to the mullions of two superimposed windows. The third stage has on each side a scroll-pedimented panel with clock, below which are two round-arched openings and a balcony with balustrade on scroll brackets. Above is an open round-arched arcade topped with a pinnacled balustrade. On each side above this is a pinnacled gabled dormer with two round-arched openings and balustrade. The tower is topped with a domed octagonal cupola with round arches and a swept-roofed octagonal lantern with a standing figure.

The right return, facing St Paul's Square, has to the left the main gable with two pedimented windows and above, two cross casements flanking the central stack, with two round-arched windows below. To the right is a canted two-storey bay window facing to the rear, with a two-light window flanked by three-light windows. Further right is a square block with parapet and pyramidal roof, two storeys with a two-window range of three-light windows. In the centre is a swept shaped gable with segmental pediment. The first floor has three elliptical-arched traceried four-light windows with buttresses between them, and above, a figure niche flanked by single-mullion windows. Below is a buttressed ground floor with three four-light windows.

Further right again is a symmetrical block of four storeys plus attics with a seven-window range. The first floor has two-light windows with cornices and balconies, the second floor has smaller two-light windows with cornices, and the third floor has plain four-light windows. Above the parapet are three shaped-gabled dormers with pinnacled flanking buttresses and four-light windows with crosslets above them. The ground floor has a round-arched arcade with three-light windows. At each end is an octagonal turret with traceried balustrade, then a recessed bay with a single window, and beyond, large octagonal stair towers with conical roofs topped with domed lanterns. The left tower has a multi-gabled parapet, the right tower a pierced balustrade.

The left return, to Surrey Street, has a double-gabled projecting centre of six windows and slightly projecting end gables. It is four storeys plus attics with a fourteen-window range. The centre has a slight recess with two four-light windows and above, two round-arched openings with balustrade, and above, two four-light windows. Above the parapet are two round-arched dormers with wooden cross casements. The ground floor has two smaller four-light windows. The flanking projections have swept shaped coped gables with broken segmental pediments and finials. The left gable has two four-light windows and above, two similar windows with ogee-arched central lights and scroll pediments. Above is a round-headed niche flanked by single four-light windows and above, in the gable, a pedimented cross casement flanked by single corniced cross casements. The ground floor has two three-light windows. The right gable has similar fenestration, but with a scroll-pedimented Doric portico to the left, with steps to a round-arched doorway with rusticated voussoirs. To its right, the ground floor window is replaced by a double door.

The wings have three three-light windows with segmental and gabled pediments, and above, three dormers—the central one gabled, the others round-arched. The ground floors have to the left three three-light windows and to the right a single three-light window, then steps to an underground public toilet protected by a balustrade. Beyond, the projecting end bays have traceried coped gables with buttresses and pinnacles. The first floor has two cross casements, and between them a bracket supporting the bow-fronted first-floor oriel, which has a five-light window and balustrade. Above is a four-light window with central glazed door. The ground floor has two cross casements. At the left end is an octagonal stair tower with multi-gabled parapet and conical roof topped with a domed octagonal lantern. It has three windows on each floor, those to the third floor with segmental pediments.

The rear elevation has five bays with a central two-storey canted oriel with three windows on each floor, flanked by single bays with a four-light window in each floor and swept shaped gables. Above the balustrade are three hipped dormers. The ground floor has three moulded round-arched entrances with keystones, flanked by single doorways. On either side are single bays with two windows on each floor, and above, single box dormers. On the ground floor are two windows and beyond, single doorways with mullioned overlights under segmental pediments. On the left side, to Surrey Street, is a lower three-stage square stair turret with swept segmental pedimented gable. The upper stage has a three-bay arcade of Doric piers on scroll brackets with three single-mullion windows. The ground floor has an elliptical-arched door, and the intermediate stages have small slit lights.

Interior

The entrance hall has rich carved decoration by Pomeroy. The square stairwell features marble and alabaster panelling and a round-headed blind arcade at first-floor level, open on the entrance side to a vaulted passage. It has a moulded cornice with coved plasterwork ceiling and hammerbeam clerestory roof. The stone staircase has landings around three sides with alabaster balustrade and moulded marble handrail. On the first landing is a seated statue of the Duke of Devonshire from 1900 by Onslow Ford. On the right side is a two-bay polychrome round-arched arcade with central marble pier. The entrance side has a round-arched arcade with larger enriched central arch and coffered flanking arches. Above is a round-arched arcade with serpentine alabaster balustrade. The ground floor has coffered round-arched corridors with pilasters and round-arched doorways with half-glazed doors.

The first-floor council chamber has half-height framed wall panelling with blind arcading above and cross beam ceiling. At the front is a dais with a central aedicule framed by paired Ionic columns with broken swan-neck pediment containing a coat of arms in a panel. On the opposite side is a five-bay round-arched arcade; the upper parts of the three central bays open onto a public gallery with traceried front. The flanking arches have windows above and glazed screens below. The chamber retains its original oak desks, chairs and fittings. The Mayor's parlour and ante-room are fitted in the same style.