Malton Museum

Malton Museum is a butter market and town hall, now serving as a museum. The original butter market dates from the early 18th century and was raised and extended around 1855. The building is constructed of tooled sandstone, originally lime-washed, with rebuilds and extensions in dressed sandstone, some parts faced with 20th-century stone cladding, and ashlar dressings. Arcaded sections have been blocked with rendered brick. The roof is slate, with stone stacks and coped gables, featuring corbel kneelers at the rear and one cornice ridge stack.

The front (north-east) elevation is a two-story, six-bay design arranged as 1:3:2. The central three bays project to form a large frontispiece with plain pilasters, moulded imposts, and massive grooved consoles that support a balcony with wrought-iron railings. A flight of steps leads to panelled double doors with a divided overlight in the central bay, flanked by small two-light windows. A half-glazed panelled door, flanked by single-pane windows, provides balcony access on the first floor. The left and right bays of the frontispiece contain twelve-pane sashes, and the right-end bay has a single-pane sash. All openings are chamfered and feature chamfered stone sills. A raised first-floor band and a moulded eaves band run beneath the coped parapet, which is stepped in places.

The rear (south-west) elevation is a two-story, four-bay front with a two-story, one-bay extension to the left. The ground floor of the four-bay section previously comprised a butter market arcade of round arches on square-section piers, now blocked by sash windows with stone sills. Similar windows are on the first floor. The left-end bay has a single-pane sash on each floor. A bellcote with louvred openings sits at the right-of-centre, topped by a pyramidal steeple with an arrow weather vane.

The south-east return has a two-story, three-bay front, with the left bays gabled and featuring a round-arched arcade now blocked by sash windows. The right-end bay has a blocked round arch with an impost band. The north-west return contains a two-story, four-bay front, with the two bays to the right gabled. A sunken-panelled door with an overlight is set within a keyed chamfered doorcase beneath a pediment hood resting on grooved corbels. There are two single-pane sash windows to the right and one to the left, with matching windows on the first floor. Two blocked slits are found in the gable end.

The interior retains a near-complete Butter Market on the ground floor, with three four-bay arcades of round arches constructed of tooled voussoirs on square-section piers with imposts. The first floor includes a former Council Chamber with a fine hammer-beam roof, partially ceiled.