Chrisp Street Market Clock Tower

Clock tower, built 1952 to designs by Frederick Gibberd.

The building is rectangular in footprint, constructed in red-brown brick laid in monk bond.

The longer east and west sides are largely of brick, and the north and south sides are mainly open, enclosed only by railings at each stair landing. Two interlinked flights of reinforced concrete stairs, starting from opposite sides, provide one route up the structure, and another one down, only meeting at the viewing platform at the top. Gibberd acknowledged the prototype of this stair to be the famous double staircase at the Chateau de Chambord in the Loir, France. The scissor-like criss-crossing of the stairs is expressed in the outer faces of the tower, with the exposed concrete stair beams and landing edges, creating a lozenge motif in the brickwork up the east and west sides; the centre of each lozenge is pierced and enclosed with railings.

At the top of the stairs is a viewing platform which projects from the face of the tower, all four sides of the tower are open at this level. Above, the tower continues in solid brickwork, with a large clock-face on each side. The clock faces are formed of a white steel ring with black chapters and white steel hands. The tower is capped by a shallow pitched roof.