The Guildhall

The Guildhall

A Tudor-Gothic guildhall built mainly as a single storey, comprising a high L-shaped block with distinctive gable ends. The mayor's parlour, added in 1863, has its gable facing Rose Hill Street, while the council chamber, added in 1925, has its gable facing Castle Square. Lower single-storey projections, including an entrance vestibule, extend to the front facing Castle Square. The building is constructed of snecked red sandstone with Bath stone dressings.

The mayor's parlour and council chamber both have steep slate roofs with bands of fishscale slates, finished behind coped gables on moulded kneelers. The mayor's parlour features moulded stone eaves supported on a corbel table, two roof dormers with barge boards and louvres, and a tall lateral stone stack with two freestone polygonal shafts. The lower projections have roofs concealed behind coped parapets.

The main entrance faces Castle Square, positioned to the right in front of the mayor's parlour, with the gable end of the council chamber to the left. The entrance section, added in 1925, is slightly splayed on its left side following the line of the road. The moulded arched doorway is framed by a richly ornamented projecting gabled bay with freestone detail. The doorway itself features foliage and quatrefoil decoration in the spandrels, surmounted by a panel inscribed 'Guildhall' in raised antique letters, all beneath a hood mould. Above the doorway is a gabled niche with flanking pinnacles and an ogee head with blind tracery, containing a roundel displaying the borough seal and the dates '1284' and '1925' in Roman numerals, all in relief. The double ribbed doors are studded and fitted with strap hinges.

To the right of the doorway is a high-set three-light mullioned window, and on the left-hand facet are similar three-light and one-light windows. Cast-iron rainwater heads dated 1925 are positioned between the left-hand windows and in the short right-hand return.

Set back to the right of the entrance section is the front of the original building, comprising a single bay with a one-light window to Castle Square and a moulded string course. This continues into a square two-stage turret set back further to the right. The lower stage of the turret has narrow windows, while the upper stage features lozenges with blind quatrefoils. The embattled parapet sits on a corbel table. Behind this turret are two stepped projecting two-storey bays facing Rose Hill Street, the left-hand having two-light windows with central colonnettes and the right-hand having one-light windows.

The gable end of the mayor's parlour incorporates a square tower on its right side. At basement level there is an arched doorway with a boarded door and strap hinges, to the right of which is a two-light window with colonnette beneath a pointed relieving arch. Above is a moulded string course continued from the stepped bays to the left, finished with a foliage stop. At ground floor level are a pair of two-light plate tracery windows to the parlour, each with a central colonnette and foliage capital, with cusped lights and quatrefoil decoration. In the coped gable is a cusped round window. To the left of the main window, above the string course, is a cast-iron street sign.

The slightly lower three-stage tower abuts No 1 Rose Hill Street. Its lower stage has a cusped window to the street and a boarded door in the left return wall beneath a shouldered head. The second stage has a two-light window with colonnette and hood mould, and a one-light window in the left return wall. A freestone offset between the second and third stages incorporates cusped freestone gables in both faces. The narrower upper stage has a similar two-light window to the street and a one-light window in the return wall. The coped parapet sits on a Lombard frieze.

The gabled front of the council chamber faces Castle Square and is faceted, with freestone bands. It features a four-light mullioned and transomed window with cusped-headed lights and a hood mould. A round window in the gable contains a pointed quatrefoil. The left side wall has three half dormers under shallow hipped roofs with cross windows, to the right of which is another cast-iron rainwater head dated 1925. Against the left side wall of the council chamber is a coped wall with an iron gate, leading up stone steps to a rear ribbed door beneath an ogee head, set in a slight projecting porch.

The rear of the council chamber, now facing a car park, is of brick with a four-light window similar to that on the front. The rear of the mayor's parlour is of rubble stone.

Interior

The entrance vestibule leads to steps and a corridor, with the council chamber to the left and the mayor's parlour to the right. The vestibule has a plaster ceiling and terrazzo floor. The corridor is top-lit by a round roof light. Double ribbed doors lead to both the chamber and parlour.

The mayor's parlour has a three-bay arched-brace roof on corbels, with arcading to the eaves. It incorporates a lateral Gothic fireplace with outer marble half shafts on foliage corbels.

The council chamber is three bays wide and features a three-bay hammerbeam roof on corbelled brackets, strengthened by steel ties. It has rich plaster ceilings with relief foliage painted in bright colours, and iron grilles.