Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Huntingdon Town Hall
Municipal building in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Huntingdon Town Hall is a municipal structure on Market Hill in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Huntingdon Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building.[1]
Remove ads
Remove ads
History
Summarize
Perspective

The first municipal building on Market Hill was a 17th-century courthouse which was arcaded on the ground floor, so that markets could be held, with an assembly room on the first floor.[2][3] It was demolished in the mid-18th century to allow construction of the current building.[2]
The current building was designed by Benjamin Timbrell in the neoclassical style, built in red brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1745.[4][5][6] Initially the building was of two storeys over an open ground floor, but in 1817-18 it was reconfigured by S. P. Cockerell:[7] the ground floor was enclosed to form an entrance hall, and two new law courts to the rear.[8]
As rebuilt, the design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto Market Hill with the ground floor rendered and painted; the central section of three bays, which projected forward, featured a doorway flanked by two pairs of Tuscan order columns supporting an entablature; there was a balcony and a French door flanked by casement windows on the first floor and there were three tall round headed windows on the second floor.[1] At roof level there was a large pediment with a clock in the tympanum and central cupola above that.[1] Internally, the principal rooms were on the top floor:[8] the assembly hall (or 'ballroom'), which featured three chandeliers and a series of important portraits, the Mayor's Parlour and the council chamber, which featured boards listing the names of former mayors of the town.[9] The main staircase was recovered from the earlier courthouse.[2]
After the First World War, a war memorial in the form of a bronze statue of a soldier was designed by the sculptor, Kathleen Scott and erected in front of the town hall by the local contractor, Thackray and Co; the statue, which became known as "the Thinking Soldier", was unveiled by the Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire, the Earl of Sandwich, on 11 November 1923.[10] The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Huntingdon Borough Council and, from 1961, of Huntingdon and Godmanchester Borough Council[11] and briefly remained the local seat of government when the enlarged Huntingdonshire District Council was formed in 1974.[12] Although the district council relocated to modern facilities at Pathfinder House in St Mary's Street in Huntingdon in 1977,[13] the town hall continued to be used as a meeting place by Huntingdon Town Council[14] and, following a major programme of refurbishment works costing £0.9 million which was completed in 2012,[15] the building became an approved location for marriages and civil partnership ceremonies.[16]
Works of art in the town hall include a portrait by John Shackleton of King George II[17] and by Gainsborough Dupont of Queen Caroline,[18] as well as portraits by Allan Ramsay of King George III[19] and of Queen Charlotte.[20] There are also portraits by Peter Lely of Oliver Cromwell,[21] by Sir Joshua Reynolds of the Duke of Cumberland[22] and by Godfrey Kneller of the former local member of parliament, Sir Lionel Walden,[23] as well as portraits by Francis Grant of the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Sir Frederick Pollock[24] and of the former Secretary of State for War, Jonathan Peel.[25]
Remove ads
See also
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads