Old Town Hall

OLD TOWN HALL

A former town hall with shops beneath, located on Market Place in Carlisle and incorporating No.72 Scotch Street and Nos.1-7 St Albans Row. The building was constructed in 1668-9 on the site of the medieval town hall, with substantial extensions and alterations dating to 1717 and the early 19th century.

The central oldest part, dating to 1668-9, is two storeys high with seven bays and features painted stucco walls on a chamfered plinth, topped with a red sandstone eaves cornice and solid parapet. The 1717 extension extends at right angles to the right and reaches the same height as the original section. This addition is constructed of red sandstone ashlar with V-jointed quoins and calciferous sandstone dressings, and includes a clock tower cupola. The extension has two projecting bays on the main facade and a five-bay return forming the Scotch Street frontage. An early 19th-century extension to the left rises to three storeys and consists of a single bay, built of stucco over brick with ground-floor pilasters and rusticated ashlar. The buildings together form an overall L-shape, with rear shops accessed from St Albans Row.

The roofs are of graduated green slate, partly hipped and coped with kneelers on the higher early 19th-century extension. The central part has a bellcote with vents, while the 1717 extension carries the clock tower cupola. Ridge chimney stacks are of painted stucco.

Central to the street elevation are external serpentine stone steps of red sandstone ashlar leading to the upper-floor council chamber. These steps, dating to around 1825 and replacing earlier 17th-century steps, comprise two flights with round and squared piers and speared railings. Beneath them, a segmental arch originally gave access to lock-up cells. Above the steps are double plank doors in a stone architrave surmounted by a pediment bearing the city arms and a ball finial. The ground floor features 19th and 20th-century shop windows, while the upper floors have sash windows in 19th-century stone architraves, dating from around 1825 and replacing the original cross-mullioned windows.

The 1717 extension features a panel on its main facade displaying the city arms, the name of the Mayor, and the date in Roman numerals. This section includes a segmental through-archway giving access from Scotch Street to St Albans Row. The clock tower, also of 1717, has clock faces on three sides (originally fitted with only an hour hand) and a ball and weather vane finial.

The left extension has 19th-century shop windows at ground level and sash windows above in stone architraves. The rear elevation facing St Albans Row has ground-floor casement windows and half-glazed doors, restored in 1987 to their 1835 appearance. One upper-floor window, now partly blocked, was re-exposed in 1987 to reveal an original 1669 cross-mullioned window. Half-dormers were added in 1867.

The bell and bellcote are replacements dating to 1886, following a fire.

The interior council chamber retains 19th-century wooden panelling, and where the main roof trusses were cut away, carved city coats-of-arms have been inserted. Part of the original panelled seating survives. Other rooms contain ribbed plaster ceilings and 19th-century panelled doors.

The original building contract is dated 1668 and is held in Cumbria County Record Office. Council minutes dated 23 July 1669 record the completion of the work. A 1716 voucher in the same archive references a model made for the new town hall, with further vouchers for both halls dating to 1732-3. A lithograph of circa 1780 is preserved in M Nutter's 1835 publication; a watercolour of 1788 in the Jackson Collection shows that the left extension did not exist at that date, though it appears in an oil painting by William Brown of 1825. A contract for alterations dated 4 May 1825 is also on file. Details of the 1867 alterations appear in the Carlisle Journal of that year.