Town Hall

Town Hall, Wells

A town hall with magistrates courts and other offices, built in 1779 with extensions added in 1907 and 1932–33. The building is constructed of ashlar stone for the main façade, with rubble stone and English garden wall brickwork used in the rear wing, and is topped with hipped Welsh slate roofs and ashlar chimney stacks.

The building is arranged over two storeys with attics to the centre. The main façade comprises nine bays in a classical style, with a two-bay forward projection of 1907 applied to the three centre bays. The design includes a plinth, rusticated piers and quoins to the centre unit, a band course between floors, and a shallow parapet. The entire ground floor was originally arcaded with open semicircular arches, though these have now been filled with doors and glazing along the line of the original façade. The first floor features large 12-pane sash windows.

The central projection matches this design but remains open at ground floor level. At first floor, the central bay has French doors opening onto a large stone balcony with balustrading, carried on very large scrolled brackets. At attic level, three circular windows sit in bolection mould architraves with keystones, topped by a pediment bearing thin garlands and the city coat of arms. The three oculi and balcony are additions from the 1932 alterations. A matching two-bay extension extends to the right. The east return comprises three bays with ashlar stonework to ground floor only, featuring arcaded openings; two bays contain paned French windows with fanlights and one has a fanlight only.

The 1907 rear extension is two storeys with ten bays, topped by a hipped slate roof. The first floor contains seven plain sash windows and three smaller lights above nine barred cell windows, including a door below window six and a further doorway to the right.

The entrance hall contains two unfluted Doric columns on pedestals carrying longitudinal beams and two transverse deep square beams, probably inserted later. On each side, paired arches lead to heavily detailed stone staircases with raked square balusters. The main staircase, a twentieth-century insertion, comprises three arches leading to eight wide steps, continuing through a further screen wall to the principal staircase returning towards the front.

The principal hall features a dado rail and modillion cornice, though this does not extend into the end bay. A proscenium arch with panelled reveals and soffit is present. The west side contains two fireplaces with bolection mould surrounds and four six-panel doors in raised moulded architraves with panelled linings. At the south end are two six-panel doors under sloping heads with panelled linings, beneath three 12-pane sashes (with the top sash pivoted). The ceiling features a central rosette and four circular cast-iron vents. The Court Room contains a circular central ventilator; its fittings are of late twentieth-century date.

The building was erected by public subscription on the site of the Canonical House, also known as 'The Exchequer', under the authority of an Act of Parliament dated 1779. It replaced an earlier structure nearer the centre of the Market Place, described as being "supported by stone columns, and over it a large room for transacting the public business of the borough", which had fallen into a ruinous state. The last Assize Court was held here in 1970. A plaque on the front records building dates and historical information.