The Guildhall

The Guildhall

Built between 1886 and 1890 by William Hill of Leeds, the Guildhall was reconstructed after Second World War bomb damage between 1955 and 1959. The building is constructed in ashlar stone with flat lead roofs and displays a massive Italianate Classical style.

The exterior presents two storeys with a high basement and attic storey. The façade comprises seventeen bays, of which the end bays and the two bays flanking the centre are blind. At the centre stands a giant hexastyle Corinthian portico with an entablature featuring a modillioned cornice and a pediment with sculptured tympanum. The pediment is crowned with a statue of Neptune set on an acroterion, with ante-fixae at each side surmounted by sculptured figures.

Flanking the portico are pedestals each bearing a couchant lion. A grand splayed central staircase rises 32 steps to the column bases, then five further steps lead to the main entrance. The main door is a large two-leaf design with each leaf containing ten moulded panels, set under a stone frieze with wide flanking Doric pilasters. Each pilaster has a sculptured shaft, frieze and cornice. Above on the first floor is a round-headed casement with leaded lights, recessed behind a balustrade and set under a round stone arch with matching flanking Doric pilasters.

To left and right of the entrance are projecting wings, each flanked by a giant Corinthian pilaster. Each face features an incised panel with floating frieze and cornice. At roof level on either side of the portico sits a cupola with round-arched openings on each face, keystones and moulded imposts, flanking Ionic pilasters, an entablature with dentilled cornice, and a stone dome with swept top.

At the centre and rear of the cupolas is a three-tier tower. The base is horizontally rusticated with a cornice with swag below. The middle bell stage has round-arched openings on each side with curved reveals set behind a balustrade, moulded round stone arch, keystone and moulded imposts; paired Corinthian pilasters occupy each corner with an entablature featuring a modillioned cornice. The top stage has a balustrade with corner open columned turrets and clock faces on each side under pediments. The parapet features recessed corners and is crowned by a mid-twentieth-century flat-topped octagonal storey, replacing the original dome and cupola.

On the left and right of the portico is a horizontal rusticated high basement, each containing two eight-panelled two-leaf doors with 12-pane overlights and two 24-pane metal casements set under a heavy moulded cornice. Giant Corinthian columns in a tetrastyle in antis arrangement run through the ground and first floors, with an entablature featuring a modillioned cornice and balustraded parapet. Behind the columns, five metal casements span the full height of ground and first floors; each has two square panes at top and bottom with two long centre panes. At each end is a blind projecting bay with giant Corinthian clasping pilasters, each face displaying an incised panel with floating frieze and cornice. At roof level, recessed behind each corner is a mid-twentieth-century square structure, replacing the original cupola.

The left and right return façades each measure thirteen bays wide and follow a similar treatment, except that the first floor casements are each set under a round arch and the central seven bays project with giant Corinthian columns.

The interior and rear elevation were completely rebuilt in the mid-twentieth century.