Town Hall

Town Hall

This Grade II listed building is constructed of coursed, rock-faced Old Red Sandstone with Bath limestone ashlar dressings and natural slate roofs. It forms a large rectangular block at the centre of town with prominent frontages to Cross Street and Market Street, and incorporates a market hall in the angle behind the main structure.

The architectural style is rural Early French Gothic with some Italian touches. The building rises to three storeys, with five windows facing Cross Street and three facing Market Street. A tall clock tower stands prominently on the corner. The ground and first floors are contained within an arcade of five Gothic arches of transitional pattern. The centre bay opens to the market hall, whilst the left-hand arch under the tower contains the entrance to the main stair serving the council chamber and assembly room, now the Municipal Theatre. The arcade features steeply pointed Gothic arches divided by Romanesque piers with stiff-leaf capitals. The stair door has colonettes and plank doors, with an elaborate rose window containing six vertical recesses below in the arch head. The other arches are slightly wider, with the market entrance closed by iron gates and three shop windows glazed in three vertical lights, with triple sash lunettes above lighting the mezzanine.

The second floor has five 2-light windows with 1 over 1 pane sashes, each divided by a central colonette. They feature Caernarvon heads and paired cinquefoils in the tympanum, with a double cill band and shields between. Stone bracket eaves support a large pitched roof, hipped at the Market Street end and gabled at the other, with three vent cowls on either side of the ridge.

The lower stages of the tower form part of the main elevation. The first free-standing stage has three arrow slit windows to each face, above which sits the clock dial, white with block letters (illuminated at night) and black on the north side. Above this is the belfry stage with 4-light bell louvres featuring colonettes. Only the clock face appears on the rear elevation of the tower. The tower top has machicolated battlements, a fretted balustrade and corner tourelles. These features and the central pyramid roof are covered in copper, their bright green hue making them easily visible from a distance.

The Market Street elevation is arranged in three bays with similar features to the Cross Street frontage. The far gable end rises high above The Kings Head Hotel and displays a large plate tracery rose window with a central quatrefoil surrounded by eight smaller ones. The gable employs an arch braced tie-beam roof truss with a stack on the gable.

The rear elevation is mostly obscured by the market hall roof, though the Market Street end has an additional second floor window matching those on the main elevation, with the top half of a second visible. A large central stack rises from the rear wall. The market hall projects across the entire rear, presenting two gabled roofs with the smaller on the left. The large gable features seven graduated windows with a circular window above the largest and widest central opening. The smaller gable has three windows. Both roofs incorporate a wide glazed section along the ridge.

The building was designed as a multi-purpose structure providing municipal offices, council chamber, general market, assembly room, corn exchange and poor law offices. It continues to serve all functions except the last two, which are now outdated. The interior is generally plainly finished, with various spaces altered over time, though several features of note survive.

Two main staircases remain: a stone staircase in short flights around a central core, and a decorative iron staircase with hardwood treads and continuous mahogany handrail, the latter partly altered. The assembly room, now the Borough Theatre, features an open roof with very large and elaborate pine trusses decorated with Gothic ornament and a decorated balcony front. It was converted to a theatre in 1906 when it accommodated 600 people but now seats 250. The council chamber, Mayor's Parlour and committee rooms have deeply coffered ceilings but are otherwise plainly finished and have been altered. The tower houses two fine bells and a clock made by Gilbert and Bland of Croydon, presented by Crawshay Bailey in 1871. The corn exchange is top lit with a 4-bay open-trussed roof. The market hall comprises a main nave with aisles and a subsidiary nave under a smaller, lower roof. The main roof is supported by two lines of six very tall cast iron posts carrying wrought iron Warren girder rafters with light wrought iron purlins running the length of the roof, with the apex glazed.