Call Stone Magistrates Court Town Hall

SD 5192 NW & NE KENDAL HIGHGATE (East side) 7 & 8/34 Town Hall, Magistrates Court, & 24-4-51 Call Stone G.V. II

Assembly Rooms, known as White Hall, on sloping site; 1825 by Francis (& George?) Webster. 1859 converted for use as Town Hall by George Webster. 1893 (date in pediment) extended by Stephen Shaw. Hammer-dressed, banded, ground floor; 1st floor ashlar, with sill band. Eaves band and cornice. Highgate elevation has open parapet of turned stone balusters with covered urns on plinth blocks at each end; 2 ornate dormers with clock tower between. Steeply-pitched, hipped, graduated slate roofs. 2 storeys with attic to Highgate, and cellars to Lowther Street, elevations. 3-bays (2:1) added to left on Highgate elevation in 1893: Panelled double doors in richly-decorated doorcase with date and cartouche in open and broken pediment; 2 semicircular-headed windows to left with Call Stone on ground between (part of Stricklandgate Market Cross, from which proclamations have been made for over 3 centuries). 1st floor: Sash over door in architrave with splayed feet and swan-neck pediment, all within segmentally-pedimented surround; 2 sashes in corniced architrave to left. Dormer window in pedimented architrave with splayed feet. 2-stage clock tower (above door) has semicircular-headed louvred openings; swan-neck pediment between stages has cartouche with initial 'B' (for Alderman William Bindloss, Mayor, who gave the bells). 2nd stage has large, circular, clock face in open-pedimented surround. Ogee lead roof is surmounted by small lantern with weather-vane. Former White Hall comprises 3 (symmetrical) right-hand bays (1:1:1) of Highgate elevation and 14 bays (3:8:3) on Lowther Street. Highgate: central, panelled double doors and semicircular fanlight with semicircular-headed window to either side. 1st floor: Pedimented Ionic loggia in antis with cast-iron balustrade; sash in corniced architrave to either side. Central Venetian dormer window, in ornate pedimented surround, added in 1893 (replacing mid Cl9 clock tower). Lowther Street: 3 bays to either end have semicircular-headed windows to ground floor and tall 1st floor sashes; lower ground floor to Magistrates Court (3 eastern bays) has recessed, panelled double door in corniced surround with 2 windows to left. 8 central bays have semicircular-headed windows to both floors. Glazing bars to windows on both elevations. Interior: Richly decorated, mainly 1893 fittings. Hall cornice has wreaths to frieze; staircase with spiral curtail to ornamental iron handrail (rear stair similar). Council Chamber has ornate wooden chimneypiece; Assembly Hall has Doric pilasters carrying coved segmental ceiling. Both Court Room and Assembly Hall have galleries supported on cast-iron pillars.

Listing NGR: SD5149392633