Penrith Town Hall

Penrith Town Hall was built in 1905–1906 to the design of J. J. Knewstubb, adapting two Classical town houses dating from 1791. The building is designed in the Italian Renaissance style.

Materials and Construction

The town hall is constructed of Lazonby red sandstone ashlar with extensive Stanton Moor buff sandstone ashlar dressings to the main elevations. The roof is covered in Lakeland slate, and a timber cupola is topped with a lead roof. The rear extensions are built of roughly coursed red sandstone.

Plan and Setting

The building is oriented north-west to south-east on a corner site bounded by Strictlandgate to the south-west and Portland Place to the north-west. It has a rectangular plan with a projecting rear range to the north-east corner. Internally, the building retains a bipartite plan created by its conversion from a pair of town houses.

Exterior

The town hall rises two storeys with partial attic and partial basement beneath a hipped roof. Chimney stacks stand on the south-east gable and to the rear, with an ornate cupola on the left side surmounted by a decorative finial. All window openings are heavily and ornately moulded, and there are prominent quoins. A sandstone band separates the ground and first floors, and a stone balustrade forms a parapet to the south-west and north-west elevations.

South-West Elevation

This elevation has six bays, with the town hall entrance in bay four, reached by a set of stone steps. The entrance has a richly decorated multiple Corinthian porch and frontispiece, bearing an entablature inscribed 'Town Hall' surmounted by a balustrade. A large round-headed opening is fitted with double eight-panelled wooden doors and a decorative glazed and wrought iron fanlight with egg and dart detailing below. To the right is a three-light mullion and transom window and right again is a cross window; to the left of the entrance is an identical three-light mullioned window. Bay two contains a bay window comprising paired round-headed windows with projecting keystones alternating with Corinthian pilasters to the front, with round-headed and keyed windows and a single round-headed window to the sides. The bay window carries an entablature and is surmounted by a balustrade. The left end bay has a triple-light window.

The elaborate treatment given to bays two and four is continued to the first floors. Bay four is framed by clustered Corinthian pilasters and has a pair of round-headed windows with projecting keystones alternating with Corinthian pilasters; the latter merge into a stone bracketed cornice. Above the stone balustrade rises a full dormer, heavily moulded with Corinthian pilasters and a pair of arch-headed and moulded windows; above is a broken pediment flanked by decorative stone urns above a frieze. Heavily moulded round-headed three-light and two-light windows occupy the bays to the right, and a similar three-light window lies to the left. The first floor of bay two is similarly treated to bay four and also has a full roof dormer in the form of a stone panel with a pediment, consoles, and Corinthian pilasters marking the council chamber. A facsimile of the town seal consisting of a St Andrew's Cross and the inscription 'Sigillum Commune Ville de Penreth' (The Common Seal of the Town of Penrith) is carried on the pediment. The left end bay has a three-light round-headed window to the first floor.

Left Return (Free Library)

Forming the Free Library, this elevation has three bays with quoins. The central bay has paired round-headed and keyed openings alternating with marble Ionic engaged columns, carrying an entablature inscribed with 'Public Library' and floral motifs. The openings are fitted with double wooden and glazed doors with glazed fanlights. The elaboration to the entrance bay continues to the first floor with Corinthian pilasters framing a pair of Venetian windows with marble Ionic columns and a stepped parapet above with a scrolled motif decorative finial. To either side there are two full-height segmental arched windows to the ground floor and two round-arched and keyed full-height windows to the first floor.

Right Return

The left part is rendered with scattered fenestration comprising five two-pane sash windows and two round-arched openings; the latter are fitted with stained glass. The right part, forming the early to mid-19th century rear extension to the town house, is of red sandstone with a pitched roof and an axial ridge stack and five plain window openings to each floor. These are fitted with a variety of sliding sash windows, including five eight-over-eight to the ground floor.

Rear Elevation

The visible first floor of the rear elevation has a three-light stair window with stained glass, a cross window to the left, and a two-light window to the right. The ground floor of the rear elevation is obscured by a 20th century flat-roofed single-storey extension with 20th century fenestration and doors. To the right is the rear of the two-storey early 20th century library extension with a hipped roof of roughly coursed red sandstone with three windows to each floor with plain ashlar surrounds and six-over-six sash windows. To the left is a slightly lower two-storey early to mid-19th century extension with three blocked openings in ashlar surrounds and one entrance fitted with a 20th century boarded door.

Interior

The conversion of the pair of town houses to create the town hall retained the party wall between the two houses, and the interior plan is therefore in two parts linked by new openings through the party wall.

Right Half

The porch, with a cornice, black and white tiled floor, and a wooden and glazed screen with stained glass to its upper parts, opens into a reception hall. This has ornate plasterwork to the ceiling and walls including cornices, ceiling roses, and Corinthian pilasters. Paired marble columns at the end of each side wall are set upon stone bases and have plaster Corinthian capitals. A later 18th century fireplace is retained to the left wall, which formed the party wall with the attached house. To the right, a wall has been removed to create an open-plan space with elaborate cornice and modified chimney breast.

The main imperial staircase lies to the rear with early 20th century ornate metal balusters. It is considered that the pair of cantilevered upper flights with shaped tread-ends were salvaged from the original 18th century town house and remodelled to form the new stair, though with new cast-iron balustrades and a decorative grille beneath. The stair is lit by triple windows with stained glass, the centre example incorporating the town seal.

Rooms to the right of the stair at ground and first floor level retain moulded architraves, six-panel doors, cornices, and two further late 18th century fireplaces. The early to mid-19th century rear range now forms office accommodation with a spinal corridor and has few features with the exception of a wooden back stair remaining from its town house phase and a number of four-panel doors.

Left Half

The first floor comprises the council suite, the centrepiece of which is the council chamber. This is entered from a first floor hall which is similarly detailed to the ground floor hall with plasterwork and marble columns. The entrance to the chamber is ornate and fitted with heavy, double panelled doors.

The chamber is elaborately adorned with applied plaster Ionic pilasters to all four walls. On the north-east and south-west sides, paired floral plaster bands decorated with paired floral bosses rise from the cornice above the pilasters to cross the coved ceiling. On the south-west and north-west walls, these pilasters are alternated with groups of windows all with heavily moulded surrounds, and on the south-east wall they frame the main entrance and a round-headed alcove; between the latter a 18th century fireplace from the former town house is retained.

On the north-east wall, the pilasters frame a central round-headed alcove with a pedimented Corinthian aedicule with two pairs of fluted columns, possibly original to the later 18th century buildings but re-sited. This feature is flanked by large wooden pedimented door cases with double eight-panelled doors. That to the left leads into a second room with plaster cornice and ceiling features, and a later 18th century fireplace. Other rooms to the rear also retain later 18th century fireplaces.

An inserted staircase leads down to the ground floor, formerly the Free Library. While individual rooms have been knocked through to provide larger spaces, plaster cornices indicate the original configuration of rooms and the original cambered openings with upper leaded lights remain. No fireplaces were seen in these areas but may survive behind furnishings.

Subsidiary Features

Low stone walls (railings removed) front the south-west and north-west sides of the building with simple gate piers and piers.