Guildhall

The Guildhall is a Town Hall built between 1936-37 and 1946-48 by C. Cowles-Voysey, with J. Brandon-Jones as the job architect. It has a U-shaped plan and is constructed of grey brick laid in Flemish bond. The north front features five storeys with a nine-window range, where the central seven window bays project. The basement storey is rusticated stone, and the central projecting stone doorcase contains double bronze doors with glazing. A first-floor balcony is supported by paired scrolled brackets and is fitted with bronze railings. The windows throughout are three-light bronze casements set within minimal raised surrounds. Below the attic storey, there is a cornice with a coffered soffit that supports a plain parapet, which is pierced at intervals by balustrading. The attic storey, which is set back, has six windows similar to those below. The flat roof is not visible. The west front has a fourteen-window range, with the central six windows featuring a bronze first-floor balcony on paired scrolled brackets and two double doors in this central section. The south elevation consists of a single-window range.

Inside, the entrance hall leads to two dog-leg marble staircases that rise to the principal floor, with lower newels featuring bronze sea-horses and upper newels designed as bronze plinths with high-relief representations of animals, fruit, and vegetables, symbolizing the fruits of the sea and earth. The staircase has a coffered ceiling. The Council Chamber is marked by two twin and two single octagonal columns with stylised bronze Ionic capitals, and it also has a coffered ceiling, leather panels on the walls, oak benches, and a platform. The Small Hall on the first floor is two storeys high, featuring five clerestory windows under round arches, a barrel-vaulted roof, and wall pilasters with block entablatures. Committee Rooms 1 and 2, as well as the Members' Room on the first floor, are all lined with walnut. The courtrooms retain their original fittings.