The Old Town Hall is a Grade II listed building in the Dacorum local planning authority area, England. First listed on 8 November 1972. Town hall. 9 related planning applications.

The Old Town Hall

WRENN ID
high-iron-sage
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Dacorum
Constituency
Harpenden and Berkhamsted MP: Victoria Collins (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
8 November 1972
Type
Town hall
Address
The Old Town Hall, 196, High Street, Berkhamsted, HP4 1AH
OS grid reference
SP 991 078
Coordinates
51.76074, -0.56476
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: sale history · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Old Town Hall is a 2-storey building constructed in 1859, designed in the Gothic style with irregular window arrangements. It is built of brick featuring diamond patterns and has stone dressings. The roof is tiled and has a fairly steep pitch, with two gables facing the street. On the left side, there is an octagonal turret topped with a spire, which partially projects as a first-floor oriel window.

The building has a chimney on the left, made of stone with quoins and a cornice. A stone eaves cornice runs across the central gable, interrupted by the oriel. The oriel window features a tall, square-headed central light with curvilinear tracery above, flanked by two shorter ogee-headed, cusped side lights. The central bay has three adjoining 2-light windows with cusped heads set under Tudor arches, all with continuous hood-moulds.

To the right, there is an oriel window with three lights, pointed arch, curvilinear tracery, and a nodding ogee hood mould. A moulded string at the first floor is broken forward around the oriels and rises to a square arch with a shield in the center above the main doorway. The ground floor has three large pointed arched entrances, which are double chamfered and feature hood-moulds. The first and third entrances are divided by round shafts with foliated caps. The first entrance accommodates the base of the left oriel, the second has large double doors, and the third includes a central oculus with mouchettes. There is a smaller entrance at the extreme right with a stilted pointed arch and hood-mould. A round clock on a decorative iron bracket projects from the central gable.

Local climate

The Old Town Hall sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 77% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 79% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 72% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • Sale history — 1 transaction since 2023
  • Related listed building consents — 9 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. 173, High Street Grade II* 53 m
  2. Outbuilding Behind Number 214 Grade II 58 m
  3. 216 and 216a, High Street Grade II 65 m
  4. Barclays Bank Limited Grade II 68 m
  5. 163 and 165, High Street Grade II 80 m
  6. National Westminster Bank Grade II 82 m
  7. H H Dickman, Chemists Grade II 95 m
  8. Lloyds Bank Grade II 131 m
  9. The King's Arms Public House Grade II 140 m
  10. The Crown Public House Grade II 156 m