Town Hall

The Town Hall in Batley is a building designed in the Classical style, which also incorporates the Mechanics Institute from 1854. It was constructed in 1905 by Walter Hanstock & Son of Batley. The building is made of ashlar stone with rusticated quoins and features a hipped slate roof adorned with a guilloche frieze and a bracketed cornice. It has two storeys and a seven-bay facade, with the central three bays slightly projecting and topped with a pediment.

At the first floor level, the central section is flanked by four pilasters that have garlanded capitals. The central window on the first floor is also pedimented. On the ground floor, the central projection is flanked by vermiculated piers. The main entrance features a round-arched doorway with a raised keystone and richly carved spandrels, supported by engaged columns and consoles that hold up a cornice with a balcony above. The ground floor windows are round-arched with architraves, except for the square-headed windows to the left and right of the doorway, which have plain surrounds. The first-floor windows are square-headed and have dentilled cornices on console brackets.

The left elevation consists of six bays, with the three bays on the left breaking forward. The window detailing matches that of the facade, except for the central ground floor window in the left break, which was originally a doorway and features a carved head in the keystone and a heavily rusticated surround. Inside, there is a simple Art Nouveau staircase and tiles, although the tiles have been painted over. The Town Hall occupies a prominent site in the town centre.