Old Town Hall

The Old Town Hall is a former town hall and court, built around 1783. It incorporates the staircase from the earlier Town Hall of 1685, which originally stood to the north of the current building, and was altered in the 20th century. The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with a large hipped plain-tile roof. It comprises a rectangular main block with a semicircular apsidal projection to the left and wings to the rear left and rear right.

The main facade is two storeys and five windows wide. A wide central doorway is approached by two stone steps, featuring 20th-century double-leaf doors, a fanlight, a round-arched head, and a semicircular iron canopy supported on wrought-iron brackets. The ground and first floors have 24-pane sash windows with limestone sills. The ground floor windows are recessed within a blank arcade with elliptical arched heads, featuring wood lintels. The first floor windows have flat-arched heads. A rendered plinth, stone cill bands within the arcade arches, impost bands, a storey band, and dentilled brick eaves add detail to the exterior.

The roof oversails the right side wall and includes a central square, lead-covered oak bell turret with an illuminated clock face inserted in 1882 and a copper ball finial. Above this sits a painted copper swan, the borough crest, which was undergoing restoration at the time of survey. A two-storey, rendered apse is located to the left, continuing the blank arcading and storey band. This features curved tripartite sashes at basement level and 12-pane sashes at mezzanine level. A central 6-panel door leads to the basement, originally accompanied by a chimney stack.

A two-storey wing to the rear left includes a giant niche beside the main block, now partly blocked, framing a first-floor window which illuminates the main stair. The right side elevation, facing Castle Street, has a deep timber cove below the oversail, resting on a moulded rail with a dentilled cornice. The two-storey wing to the rear right has a three-bay elevation to Castle Street, featuring a central 6-panel double-leaf door approached by three stone steps and an overlight, flanked by tripartite sashes with similar flat-arched heads. A blank window is above the door, flanked by 24-pane sashes, all with flat-arched heads. This wing also has a plinth, cellar windows, a storey band, and dentilled brick eaves.