Town Hall

Town Hall, Lynton

This town hall was built following the laying of its cornerstone in 1898 and was opened by its donor, Sir George Newnes, on 15 August 1900. The building was designed by the London architects Read and Macdonald. It is constructed of squared rubble with limestone ashlar dressings, timber-framing, and tile roofs, executed in a neo-Tudor style with Art Nouveau details. The upper floor features close-spaced timber-framing with decorative bracing in the Cheshire tradition, while the ground floor is built in stonework.

The plan is near-symmetrical, with a full-width public hall at upper level accessed by a grand imperial staircase, and secondary access at the half-landing level. The ground floor contains the Council Chamber to the left and library to the right, with other smaller rooms.

The south front presents three gables set over multi-light casements. On each side of the central gable stands an octagonal stone turret with small single or double lights beneath crenellations. Between these turrets a bold balcony projects forward, carried on large scrolled stone brackets and finished with a balustrade featuring splat balusters and heavy square newels crowned with steep obelisk finials. This balcony continues as the stair balustrade, returning by a quarter-landing to the right. The ground floor displays a raked buttress over a small moulded arch to the left, then a four-light window to the Town Clerk's office, and a 1:1:2-light window to the turret base. Beyond the doorway are two two-light windows. The main entrance is framed by a very wide elliptical moulded arch, dying to jamb-stops, set over a full-width flight of shallow stone steps. Heavy framed doors with segmental arched heads and Art Nouveau embellishment and fittings occupy this opening, with a small door to the left and a two-light casement to the right. The wall supporting the quarter-landing to the right has battered sides. The gables are finished with decorative bargeboards carrying wooden finials. The main roof is hipped with returns, forming a U-plan at the rear, with the side gables continuous with the outer slopes.

The left return displays 2:3:2-light casements to the first floor above a flat-roofed seven-light bow serving the Council Chamber. A large external stack with paired diagonal flues to cappings and frieze rises on this elevation. The right return has at upper level a very large decorative carved stone panel including the Royal Arms above a fine doorway framed by a moulded stone elliptical arch with Art Nouveau detail and panelled timber door featuring a shell-hood motif. To its right is a large four-light window serving the library. Beyond this point the building steps down slightly with simpler detailing. The rear elevation is complex, incorporating a wide dormer and various lights, including a group of seven set within a wide flat cusped elliptical arch. At the half-landing level is an octagonal extension in stone with a door on the east side. A further large ridge stack towards the rear of the right half carries four diagonal flues. Windows throughout are casements with leading, featuring moulded transoms and mullions in timber with ovolo-mould to the first floor and stone with hollow chamfer to the ground floor.

The interior is richly panelled and fitted, appearing little modified. The square entrance hall is supported on four large square piers and responds with strapwork panelling. Fine panelled doors with pulvinated friezes and pedimented heads open to each side, while a dentilled frieze runs continuously at the head of the panelling and at ceiling level. The inner vestibule doors, with undulating head, are glazed with Art Nouveau enrichment.

The Jubilee Room, originally the library, to the right is fully panelled with a deep square embayment to the window, flanked by the lobby and a store. From the main hall, the long Council Chamber opens centrally to the left, featuring a seven-light bow window. It contains a wide stone fire surround with elliptical arch beneath a wide polished wood mantel of undulating head and eared surround. The room opposite, now serving as the library and originally a recreation room, features a fire surround in green faience with a bold bolection-mould surround.

Four full-width steps lead to the wide main imperial staircase in polished hardwood with Jacobean detail, featuring a solid string, twisted balusters, and large square newels carrying fine heraldic lions rampant. The panelled walls have a dentil cornice. The half-landing opens through an elliptical arch into a semi-octagonal lobby with a door. At the top landing are seven-panelled doors to the main hall and to rooms at each end, those to the hall being pedimented. A secondary stone tight-well stair with simple iron balustrade rises to the right of the main stair.

The main hall, hipped at the west end, spans four bays and is supported on arch-braced trusses with queen-posts set on deep hammer-beam brackets, tied with iron rods. Two ranges of wind-bracing are present. The centre has a flat ceiling, and the purlins feature elliptical arch bracing. On the street side the hall opens into the two turrets, with doors to the balcony or the head of the external stair.

This is a very striking building and one of the finest Domestic Revival examples of its type in the country, executed without expense being spared. The total cost is recorded as £20,000. Sir George Newnes, a major benefactor to the town, employed the contractor Bob Jones on this project as in other major public works. Stones flanking the main entry record: to the left, 'This Town Hall presented by Sir George Newnes, J.P. was opened by him on 15th day of August 1900', and to the right, 'Erected by Sir George Newnes Baronet J.P. and presented by him to Lynton and Lynmouth for ever'.