Old Town Hall

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SE 4521 NE 8/30

PONTEFRACT MARKET PLACE (north-east side) Old Town Hall

(Formerly listed under Bridge Street)

29.7.50

GV II*

Market building with gaol at back and assembly room above. 1785. By Bernard Hartley I of Pontefract, Surveyor of Bridges to the West Riding of Yorkshire. Ashlar sandstone, Welsh slate roof. Three storeys, three x two bays with lower two-storey gaol range to rear right. Market Place elevation: three bays; ground floor has chamfered rustication with three segmental arches having plinths, impost band and dropped keystones; the left bay open, the centre bay with C20 glass shop front, the right bay with recessed infilling. Band forming base to giant order of fluted Tuscan pilasters, one at ends, paired to centre bay, which advances slightly and is pedimented. First-floor windows are sashes with glazing bars and sill band, with wrought-iron balcony in centre, and turned-baluster aprons to outer bays. Second-floor windows are half-size six-pane casements with projecting sills. Modillion cornice. Flag pole in front of pediment. Hipped roof. Central wooden clock tower with cupola with lead-covered dome and weather-vane.

Rear: one bay visible, matching front. Left return finely rendered, and scored as if ashlar; two bays; both ground-floor arches open; above, single pilasters, no openings. Rear wing, elevation to Bridge Street: ground floor door below deep over-light and window; two blind first-floor windows; all with voussoired wedge lintels. Interior: first floor assembly room has white marble fireplace with sleeping lion as centrepiece of fluted frieze and later cast iron grate; at left end, magistrates' bench with coat of arms on plaque above between consoles with dentilled cornice above, and C19 panelled front; segmental gallery above bench has wrought iron railings; ceiling cornice. At right end; full size plaster cast of John Edward Carew's bronze relief of 'the Death of Nelson' from. the column in Trafalgar Square, London, set behind cast-iron railings with spear finials and lotus standards.

Derek Linstrum, West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture, (1978), pp. 329-331.

Listing NGR: SE4567221954