Middlesex Guildhall

TQ 3079 NW CITY OF WESTMINSTER PARLIAMENT SQUARE, SW1 92/49 (west side) 5.2.70 Middlesex Guildhall G.V. II* County Guildhall. 1906-13 by J G S Gibson with Skipwith and Gordon, sculpture by H C Fehr. Portland stone (load bearing with internal steel frame), slate roofs. Very accomplished, boldly massed, Free Style late Gothic with Flemish- Burgundian references and more immediately influenced by Henry Wilson and Giles Scott in the concentration of carved ornament balanced by bare wall plane. Free standing block with symmetrical main elevations and imposing tower of elongated section. 3 storeys, basement and dormered attic storey with steep hipped roof behind. 9 bays wide. Entrance in centrepiece with segmental arched deep set portal and great segmental arched window above framed by canted bay-turrets. Behind rises the massive tower with large segmental arched windows to sides with flamboyant ornament, piercedwork parapet and corner turrets. Stone mullioned-transomed windows to flanking ranges and returns. Drip string across ground floor stepped over window heads. Sharply profiled cornice. The attic storey has blind panel tracery linking enriched flamboyant gabled dormers. The south return has main central portion advanced with 3 semicircular arched ground floor windows and stone piercedwork balcony to 1st floor. Fine sculptured details with deep, figured, relief frieze above and to the sides of the entrance extending over canted bay-towers; statues under canopies, finials etc. Lofty stone chimney stacks with attached"torse"shafts. Good Free Gothic area railings. In the basement the C17 gateway to Tothill Fields Prison.

Listing NGR: TQ3002279601