The Guildhall

The Guildhall is a building of 1877, constructed in the Gothic Revival style. It replaced an earlier guildhall and followed the abolition of the West Looe Corporation. The building is constructed of coursed slatestone rubble with freestone dressings, featuring steep dry slate roofs with projecting eaves. A prominent clock tower rises from the structure, displaying a freestone machicolated cornice and a very steep pyramidal roof complete with a central weather vane and hipped dormers with finials to each face. The main hall range is positioned to the right of the clock tower, with a lower range set back to the left.

The left-hand range has a pair of round-arched lights over two single lights on the ground floor. The tower features a pair of transomed arched lights over a pointed-arched doorway, above which are two small square-headed lights and a central single light. A clockface, dating from 1880, is situated at the top of the tower, replicated on other sides. The hall range has a central ground-floor buttress, flanked by pointed-arched windows, and a trio of round-arched lights to the first floor, along with a glazed central gable ventilator. The right-hand return displays five bays with lancet windows to the first floor, some with leaded glazing, and pointed arched openings to the ground floor. A window in the central bays has recessed aprons. A pointed arched doorway to the left retains its original pair of five-panel doors, while a flat-headed doorway on the right provides access. Ground floor windows are four-light, transomed, with three panes per light plus glazed tympana containing similar sized panes.

The left-hand return has a three-window range with single-light, flat-headed windows to the first floor. A corbelled stack is positioned above two squat, segmental-arched cell windows with fixed lights, secured with horizontal iron bars. A doorway, right of centre, also features original five-panel doors, and there’s a wide opening that is now glazed. The rear of the building features a projecting gable end, similar to the front, on the left, and a hipped wing on the right with two pointed lights incorporating coloured leaded glazing, with a single-light window to the left and a quadrant corner leading to two similar flat-headed lights containing coloured leaded glass. A ground-floor extension was added in the 20th century. Internally, the ground floor features chamfered cross beams and axial beams; the first floor was not inspected.