Longton Town Hall and Market

Longton Town Hall and Market is a mid-19th-century civic complex comprising a town hall built in 1844, extended in 1863, with a market hall added to the rear. The building underwent alterations in 1913 and further modifications in the late 20th and 21st centuries.

Site and Layout

The building occupies an irregular island site. The town hall stands at the north of the complex, with a rectangular plan and its main front facing north onto Times Square. The market hall projects obliquely towards the south-west from the rear of the town hall, with an irregular footprint shaped by the surrounding streets. Its principal elevation, lined with shops, faces west.

Materials

The town hall is built of Hollington stone with a slate roof. The market hall is constructed in polychromatic brick with stone dressings. The shop units along the west elevation have glazed timber frontages.

Town Hall Exterior

The principal north elevation presents a symmetrical Italianate composition of two storeys and 13 bays. It features enriched end bays, a three-bay central pedimented projection, and a porte-cochère. The ground floor is predominantly faced in vermiculated rusticated masonry set on a deep plinth, with ashlar above.

Ground floor windows have renaissance-arched openings with projecting keystones. First-floor windows sit above a sill band with panelled aprons and have flat arches with eared architraves. In the fourth bay, the remains of a pediment above the window possibly indicate the central axis of the 1844 building. The windows were replaced in the late 20th century in their 19th-century form: eight-over-eight sashes with radiating glazing bars within the arch on the ground floor, and six-over-nine sashes on the first floor.

The outer bays project slightly and are articulated by paired rusticated Tuscan pilasters on pedestals, framing an arched opening with a scroll keystone and entablature. On the first floor, paired Ionic pilasters on pedestals frame a pedimented window beneath an entablature and pediment. The outermost two bays are blind, with recessed infilled arches containing bas-relief panels dating from 1912 to 1914.

The porte-cochère forms the central feature, with an arcade of three arched openings in deeply rusticated ashlar with alternate vermiculated blocks and voussoirs, and a single arch to each return. The raised keystones bear mouldings depicting animal and human forms, fish, fruit, and flowers by F. Gladwin of Stoke. On the balcony above stand squat square pedestals topped with urns; the balustrade between them has been lost. Behind the balcony, the three bays are articulated by Ionic pilasters on pedestals framing arched window openings with rusticated architraves and eared labels above. The entablature features discs and a dentil cornice to the pediment. Low parapet walls, rebuilt to match the original design, crown each wing.

The east return elevation is similarly detailed, though without the first-floor architraves. The west elevation was rebuilt in the mid-20th century and is clad in tile.

Market Hall Exterior

The market is a lofty single-storey building constructed beneath three parallel pitched roofs. The west elevation, facing the Strand, presents an arcade of 18 shop units with a central main entrance. The units are separated by red brick pilasters with stone dressings.

The shopfronts have low stall risers and full-height glazing in timber frames with moulded transoms and slender columnar mullions. Two types of shopfront exist: one flush with the building line, the other with glazing curving into deeply recessed doorways. The opposite side of the doorway recess often contains a display cabinet, with fielded panelling above and to the soffit. Some retain mosaic tiled floors. Slender glazing bars divide the plate glass at impost level. Some refurbishment and replacement of shopfronts is recognisable by slightly heavier, plainer timbers.

Above each unit is a deep fascia, and above that a lunette lighting the mezzanine level, lined with banded buff and black brick, with a keystone rising to form a corbel within the dentil cornice. The spandrels are in banded buff and red brick.

The imposing central entrance is a French Renaissance-style composition with a pair of square towers framing a recessed doorway. The towers are heavily rusticated at the lower level, with alternating vermiculated blocks, fluted mouldings on the plinth, and a deep moulded cornice. Each tower has a narrow full-height window with a round-arched head and projecting keystone adjoining the cornice. The doorway is recessed, with a 20th-century timber arrangement. Above, a stone fielded panel spans the doorway, and a semi-circular panel of encaustic tiles is inscribed 'THIS MARKET HALL WAS ERECTED AD 1862', with illustrations of cornucopias, a glazed pot, and a lion, wheel, and shield. It has a deep cove moulding with a keystone bearing a lion's head and shield, which meets the cornice of the main elevation. The upper sections of the towers have vermiculated stone forming a border to recessed brick panels, with entablatures featuring machicolations, a dentil course, and cornice. The roofs are steep bell-cast mansards with scallop- and straight-edged slate.

The east elevation is articulated by paired pilasters in black brick with narrow windows between. The round-arched openings are lined in red and black brick, with a black impost and corbel band, red brick below, and buff brick above. There are dressed stone keystones and a red brick parapet with black tile detailing. The red brick elevation above is recessed from the building line and has a series of blind lunettes with a dentil cornice above. Alterations to door and window openings are identifiable by more recent brickwork.

The south-east elevation consists of three wide gables resulting from the three roof pitches. Each gable has a wide central window lined with red and black brick, originally with iron windows with decorative glazing bars. There are various other narrow openings, along with vehicle and pedestrian entrances, some reconfigured. Polychromatic pilasters, quoins, and impost bands enrich the elevation.

Town Hall Interior

The ground floor was remodelled in 2019, though the hourglass plan form of the central entrance, hall, and stair remains intact. The porte-cochère opens into a lobby with curved side walls narrowing to a pair of modern double doors. The hallway has simple dado rails, skirtings, and cornices.

The imperial stair has heavy square newels and bottle balusters, and is lined with green glazed tiles with terrazzo on the central landing. Square columns support the landing above and feature grotesque relief panels. Moulded arched brackets span the upper section of the stair, connecting the first-floor landing balustrade and rear wall. A lantern lights the stair from above. Some decorative panels removed from the first-floor windows during the late 20th-century renovation have been repositioned within the lobby and stair hall.

On the stair landing are plaques commemorating the success of the Longton Town Hall Action Group in saving the building from demolition in 1986 and its reopening in 1992, with further memorial panels on the first-floor landing. The tiling continues along the dado of the first-floor landing, and the wall above has fielded panelling and a dentil cornice. Doorways have panelled linings, eared architraves, and segmental pediments.

The greater part of the first floor is occupied by the assembly room, with ancillary rooms at either end. The curved ends shown on earlier plans have been reconfigured to form a rectangular room. There is a stage at the west end, above which a shield with swags bears Stoke-on-Trent's motto, 'VIS UNITA FORTIOR' (united strength is stronger).

Market Hall Interior

The market is an open-plan hall with late 20th-century stalls lining the east and south-east elevations and islands of stalls on the main floor. The west elevation has a series of two-storey shop units.

The market hall is open to the roof, which consists of three pitched parallel spans running roughly north-south. The central span is supported on two rows of cast iron columns with geometric mouldings. The roof is supported on wrought iron Howe trusses. The central span is wider and has a clerestorey with round-arched openings and dentil detailing.

The row of shops on the west side are dual aspect, with shopfronts facing both into the market hall and outwards onto the street. Like their external counterparts, shopfronts have low stall risers, sheet glazing, and moulded timber frames. Their upper floors have four fixed casements with three smaller panes above. The shops are separated by brick pilasters, with a moulded timber cornice above.

On the north wall is a ceramic clock with a plaque beneath recording its presentation by the mayor, George Copestake, in 1877, and a bell.

Access between the town hall and market is through utilitarian passages with storage areas and ancillary spaces.