The Town Hall, Coroner'S Court, Former Sessions Court And Brooke Robinson Museum

The Town Hall, Coroner's Court, Former Sessions Court and Brooke Robinson Museum

This group of civic buildings on a corner site was designed by Harvey and Wicks and built between 1924 and 1928. The Town Hall and Coroner's Court face south-west onto St James's Road, while the Memorial Tower, which forms an entrance to the former Sessions Court, faces south-east onto Priory Street. The Town Hall connects to the separately listed library building (Grade II) on St James's Road, and the former Sessions Court connects to the separately listed Old Police Headquarters (Grade II) facing Priory Street.

The buildings are of red brick laid in English bond with blue brick diapering and ashlar dressings. They rise two or three storeys.

The Town Hall

The town hall building has five bays facing St James's Road, with the central three closely grouped. Three central arches at ground floor level are approached by a flight of steps. These have four-centred arches and cable mouldings to the outer edge of their ashlar surrounds, and lead to a covered lobby. Wrought iron gates and grilles bear the date '1928' on each surmount. Plain two-light mullioned windows at either side light cloakrooms.

At first floor level, tall windows have two and three lights with mullions and transoms. The central three-light window is fronted by a stone balcony supported on carved brackets with barley-twist columns to the corners. The central plaque records the gift of the hall and museum to the town by Brooke and Eugenia Robinson. Attached barley-twist columns at either side of the window rise to stylised flame finials set at either side of an arched overthrow bearing Dudley's coat of arms in relief in the tympanum. Windows of three by two lights flank this centrepiece, with further three by two light windows at the far right and left. The second floor walling is blank but decorated with a lattice pattern of blue brick diapering. This combination of first floor window balcony, overthrow and patterned upper brickwork is reminiscent of, and seems to be a conscious reference to, the Doge's Palace in Venice. To the left of this facade, linking the building to the library, is a single recessed bay with a four-centred carriage arch to the street and a two-light mullioned window above.

The Coroner's Court and Brooke Robinson Museum

To the right of the Town Hall is a gabled block housing the Coroner's Court at ground floor level and the Brooke Robinson Museum room at first floor level. This turns the corner between St James's Road and Priory Street and has six bays facing St James's Road, with four-centred doors at far right and left. The left-hand door is approached by a double flight of steps with a wrought iron handrail. The door has an overthrow inscribed 'CORONERS COURT / BROOKE ROBINSON MUSEUM' with carved shields and foliage to the spandrels. Windows on both floors are of two lights with mullions and a transom to the ground floor windows. The gabled front of this block faces onto Priory Street with two-light mullioned windows to both floors. Between the first floor windows is set an inscribed tablet recording the opening of the building by Stanley Baldwin in October 1928. Below this is the bronze RIBA plaque, awarded to the building in 1934.

The Memorial Tower

To the right of this and projecting is the Memorial Tower, which has a stone plinth. The central doorway and first floor window are combined within a stone surround to form a frontispiece similar to the central bay on the town hall. Above the four-centred door surround, which has carved panels of foliage to a hollow mould, is a stone balcony supported on carved brackets. The corners of the balcony and sides of the window have barley-twist columns, and the two-light window has an overthrow with tympanum showing St George carved in relief. The central panel of the balcony bears an inscription composed for the building by Thomas Hardy: 'IF YOU THINK HAVE A KINDLY THOUGHT / IF YOU SPEAK SPEAK GENEROUSLY / OF THOSE WHO AS HEROES FOUGHT / AND DIED TO KEEP YOU FREE'. Much of the carving on the War Memorial Tower was executed by the Birmingham sculptor William James Bloye. Flanking this centrepiece are bronze lions' masks with rings to their mouths which support flag staffs, added in 1936. At the top of the tower, clock faces are set in diamond-shaped surrounds with triangular hoods, facing in three directions.

The Former Sessions Court

To the right of the Memorial Tower are four bays of the Sessions Court block. This has two-light mullioned windows to both floors and a battlemented parapet to the top of the wall. At the right is a doorway with four-centred arch and carved label stops and spandrels.

The rear elevations of the constituent parts face onto a courtyard which has been considerably built over during the 20th century. They are mainly functional in character with random fenestration. An exception are the flanks of the town hall building which have plain pilaster strips set between the windows and can be seen from the window of the former sessions courtroom. A small caretaker's house for the hall has now been demolished.

Interior

The town hall is approached from an outer lobby with groin vault. Three sets of half-glazed doors lead through to an inner lobby or crush hall, which has a barrel vault. The auditorium has a stage with proscenium arch to its north-eastern end and a balcony to the south-west. The lower walls are panelled and above this, to either side, are six bays of mullioned and transomed windows. The ceiling is formed by a segmental barrel vault. Large brackets set between the window bays support deep ribs with lattice decoration. Roundels at the centre of the ceiling in each bay are similarly decorated, presumably to ventilate the hall. Each window has barley-twist columns to either side supporting an overthrow, and at the bottom are miniature balconies housing up-lighters. The balcony front has similar twisted columns set in pairs. On the back wall of the stage is a mural signed by Hans Feibusch and dated 1948, showing a re-interpretation of the medieval scene of Roger de Somery stag hunting in Kinver Forest and being stopped by the King's men.

The balcony is approached by a pair of stone staircases with bronze handrails which also lead to the banqueting hall at first floor level, facing over St James's Road. This hall has an arcade to its north-eastern side with attached Romanesque columns with cushion capitals. The ceiling has a deep coving with lattice decoration.

The Coroner's Court has panelling to dado level and fixed benches and desks with inset inkwells to all four sides. Several of the bench ends are ramped and carved with guilloche patterning. The apron in front of the Coroner's desk has miniature spiral-fluted columns with carved cushion capitals. The projecting cornice running around the room is fluted and supported on brackets. A stone staircase with ramped bronze handrail leads to the former Brooke Robinson Museum room. The room is barrel vaulted with large-scale plaster decoration to the transverse ribs and has a central skylight.

The memorial lobby beneath the tower has a stone vault with central boss carved with interlacing foliage and holding an eternal light. Names of the Fallen from the First World War are inscribed on the lateral walls.

The former Sessions Court is approached through the memorial lobby or by another door onto Priory Street. The courtroom has been divided horizontally to form two floors of office accommodation. Few features survive at the lower level, save for the scribed plaster of the walls. At the upper level are the deep ribs of the panelled ceiling with guilloche moulding and a central skylight, and the capitals and columns attached to the mullions of the window, which has three arched lights. The jury room has also been converted to office space, but its carved stone fireplace survives, with free-standing spiral-fluted columns and a band of Celtic plat decoration to the lintel. Here too the walls are scribed.

History

The rectangular island site has been the location for various municipal buildings since the mid-19th century. The Police buildings were designed in 1847 by Harvey Eginton of Worcester. The former town hall building, on a corner site facing Priory Street and Priory Road, was built in 1858 in a Gothic style. The library building facing onto St James's Road was opened in 1908 to the designs of G.H. Wenyon.

The new Town Hall, museum and Coroner's Court were built in memory of Brooke Robinson and his wife Eugenia (née Collis). Robinson was a prominent local solicitor who had served as the borough coroner for a number of years and also as the town's MP for four parliaments. He presented a selection of his collection of furniture and family portraits to the borough, which were housed in a museum room at first floor level above the Coroner's Court.

An open competition for the new public buildings was held and assessed by William Curtis Green. Harvey and Wicks won the first premium from a field of 55 entrants. The winning scheme varied from what was actually built. The competition brief had stipulated a design that should blend with the neighbouring structures. The initial Tudor Gothic design was altered to the present design of varied style following the decision to erect a new Police headquarters elsewhere. Old photographs also show that the fenestration of the police building was altered to include mullioned windows where there were previously stylised arrow loops.

Although the exterior appearance changed prior to execution, the plan form and the distribution of rooms and their functions underwent little alteration. The foundation stone was laid on 14 April 1926 by The Viscount Cobham and the complex was opened by the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, on 16 October 1928. The initial intention to place an organ at the back of the orchestra seating in the hall was abandoned, and in 1948 the German émigré artist Hans Feibusch painted a mural on the rear wall of the stage showing the local medieval landowner, Roger de Somery stag hunting in Kinver Forest.

Subsequently the Sessions Court became a Magistrate's Court and in the later 20th century was changed into a banking hall for the payment of Council Tax. The double-height court room was divided horizontally to create two floors with further access doors and screen walls inserted. The Jury Room was converted to office space and the Brooke Robinson Museum room is also now used as an office, but this has caused no physical alteration to the building. In the 1990s an extensive range was built behind the St James's Road front, requiring the demolition of the former caretaker's house for the Brooke Robinson Memorial Hall.