Guildhall

SU 3645 NW ANDOVER HIGH STREET 4/56 Guildhall 24.2.50 II* Formerly Town Hall, 1825. A successor to a guildhall of 1725 to 1825, of similar form. A Greek Doric stone building, almost a cube, with 4 symmetrical elevations, a typical English Renaissance design, of a tall room above an open arcaded ground floor (now enclosed). The front (south) is of 1.3.1 bays. Blocking course above a Doric cornice, with omutile boxes, continuous frieze (without triglyphs) and continuous guttee below a tenia, plain architrave (with circular decorations above the columns); the central pediment encloses a circular opening containing a clock; 4 fluted Doric columns (3/4 attached) stand on the projected centrepiece, the wings terminating in parallel-sided pilasters. With a continuous base moulding. First floor band (continued into keystones), rusticated ground floor of 4 bands above an impost band then 5 bands above a (granite) plinth. Sashes in reveals to the upper floor, half-glazed filling of later date to the ground floor openings. The north elevation has a plainer upper part and fanlights within the arcade but the centre 3 bays of the ground floor project forward, with a pediment and central entrance. The side elevations (east and west) are the same, of 5 bays, having a regular pilaster treatment to the upper floor. Low-pitched hipped slate roof (unseen). Within the north side entrance leads to a lobby, with staircases on each side leading upwards through an apse with 2 niches to an upper lobby from which a single flight reaches the upper hall. [There was once a central clock tower].

Listing NGR: SU3647045523