Guildhall

GLOUCESTER

SO8318NW EASTGATE STREET 844-1/8/109 (North side) 12/03/73 No.23 Guildhall

GV II

Guildhall, now offices and arts centre. 1890-2. George H Hunt for Gloucester City Council; ground floor altered c1987 for conversion to offices, the upper floors converted to arts centre c1991 with minor alterations. Ashlar, slate roof. French Renaissance style. PLAN: entrance to ground floor office on left, entrance to arts centre on right with lobby to principal staircase leading to a central atrium chamber on first floor giving access to former council chamber, mayor's parlour, the sheriff's room, and members' room, etc. EXTERIOR: three storeys and basement; five bays with a slight projection to the outer bays (1:3:1); on the ground floor banded rustication above a chamfered offset plinth and ashlar course capped by a moulded string course, at first-floor level an entablature. Central doorway in a projecting frame is flanked by panelled pilasters and consoles supporting a hood formed by the projection to the entablature. On each side of the doorway a later, inserted, display window and in each end bay a doorway in opening with raised flat arch projecting keystone and panelled double doors; the taller first floor treated as a piano nobile, with an applied, recessed Ionic order to the three central bays, and with entablature with modillion cornice also slightly recessed between above the central bays, in each of the central bays a large semicircular arched opening framed by an outer order of pilasters and archivolt and in each French doors with fanlight leading onto a stone balustraded balcony, the central balcony above the projecting hood over the central doorway on the ground floor, in each end bay a large opening with flat head, moulded architrave and cornice and French casements above balustrades within the jambs; in the attic storey the three central bays defined by shaped piers supporting a crowning cornice, in each central bay a circular window with moulded architrave supported by boldly sculpted putti; in each end bay a slightly projecting centre framed by similar piers and a pediment at the level of the crowning cornice, with a two-light window with sashes framed by architraves; on each side of the projections an elaborately carved trophy, above the cornice a parapet with piers crowned by vases.

INTERIOR: the staircase remodelled c1930; all the principal rooms on the first floor retain original joinery and plasterwork of high quality; the first floor atrium has a three-bay Ionic colonnade at either end, blank arcades on the side walls with decorative plaster spandrels, a coffered ceiling and a mosaic floor; the former council room to rear has a clerestory roof and elaborate joinery and plasterwork.

Listing NGR: SO8325318495