Town Hall

A large and confident municipal hall building comprising a main rectangular two-storey hall block with narrow access blocks at the corners. The structure is built of roughcast brick with a reinforced concrete frame, faced with snecked, quarry-dressed limestone and smooth brown sandstone dressings; the roofs are slate-covered.

The facade is organized in three sections. The symmetrical three-bay, three-storey central section is flanked by irregular projecting stair blocks. The main part has three large round-arched openings to the ground floor, each arch moulded with a projecting keystone. These contain three-quarter glazing with small panes in cross-window form and opening entrance sections. The first floor displays three large three-light mullioned and transomed leaded windows, each with a full-length stone balcony supported on iron brackets and simple iron railings. The second floor has three sandstone oculi set into limestone facings with flanking decorative brackets and sandstone pilasters. These pilasters support a decorative sandstone frieze bearing the inscription 'Denbigh Borough Markets' in Art Nouveau relief letters, above which runs a simple projecting cornice with a surmounting parapet.

To the left, adjoining the main section and projecting slightly into Crown Square, is the principal stairwell contained within an advanced block with a rounded corner to the right. This corner extends to two storeys in the form of a turret and terminates with a conical roof. The main entrance is set into its convex face as a large sandstone doorway in municipal Renaissance style with a rusticated surround, moulded cornice, and central heraldic cartouche with moulded flanking pyramids. The entrance has convex multi-panel double doors, with a rectangular leaded window above featuring a moulded sill and a carved heraldic shield to its left. To the left of the turret is an ocular ground-floor window with an L-shaped three-light mullioned window lighting the stairwell above. This section is parapetted with a sandstone balustrade above the window, beneath which is an inset foundation stone.

Advanced to the right of the main section is a secondary stair block consisting of a two-and-a-half storey gabled tower with a hipped and parapetted two-storey flush extension to the right. The tower has a steeply-pitched crow-step gable to the front with a narrow sandstone central strip vertically lacing a ground-floor entrance with first and second stage windows. The entrance has a dressed surround with a projecting keystone and a recessed door with elliptical glazed upper panels. Tall leaded windows are present, the upper stage window being arched with a keystone. The adjoining right-hand section has a similarly detailed entrance, slightly higher than the tower entrance, with a lancet first-floor window; similar window treatment appears on the right return facing Crown Lane. At this corner, the wall is rounded for the lower two-thirds, then squares off above a moulded corbel to the upper third. A moulded parapet carries a Welsh relief-carved inscription in Art Nouveau lettering, including the date 1916, with a higher flat-roofed projection to the rear and a gabled vent extension to the side facing east.

The five-bay sides feature gently-inclined buttresses defining the bay divisions. The central three bays on each side have oculi set under deep eaves, with tripartite windows below consisting of a rectangular lozenge-glazed central window flanked by six-pane narrower windows. A single-storey lean-to projection runs along the entire eastern (Crown Lane) side in the manner of an aisle, featuring arched WC entrances with 1950s glazed brick windows. A crow-stepped gabled projection appears at the rear corner.

Internally, a barrel-vaulted entrance hall leads to the principal stairwell in the main entrance projection. The tall, plaster-vaulted stairwell has stairs arranged in four short flights around an L-shaped central pier faced with green figured marble copings, sloped upwards and partly topped with simple iron railings. A dentilated wooden picture rail runs around the space. On the half-landing is an exedra contained within the rounded turret, which has a stained glass cartouche window with decorative Arts and Crafts leading incorporating the initial D (for Denbigh). The main stair window bears the date 'AD 1916' with frosted marginal glazing. A further barrel-vaulted passage at the stair head contains six-panel double doors leading to the council chamber to the right, with modern lifts opposite. Beyond the passage is the main first-floor hall, a galleried auditorium in its present 1950s form with a U-shaped gallery carried on clad columns and raked seating opposite a large stage at the rear end. Stair towers and WCs flank the stage. The ground floor of the central section, beneath the auditorium and council chamber, comprises a large, plain former market hall.