Bolton Town Hall in Victoria Square,

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th centu ...

, Greater Manchester, England, was built between 1866 and 1873 for the

County Borough of Bolton Bolton was, from 1838 to 1974, a local government district in the northwest of England conterminate with the town of Bolton. History Bolton was created a free Borough in 1253 when William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby, granted a charter. However, ...

to designs by William Hill of Leeds and George Woodhouse of Bolton. The town hall was extended in the 1930s to the designs of

Bradshaw, Gass and Hope Bradshaw Gass & Hope is an English architectural practice founded in 1862 by Jonas James Bradshaw (–1912). The style "Bradshaw Gass & Hope" was adopted after his death referring to the remaining partners John Bradshaw Gass and Arthur John Hop ...

and has been designated a Grade II* listed building by English Heritage.

History

Following the incorporation of Bolton as a municipal borough in 1838, Bolton Corporation decided to use

Little Bolton Town Hall Little Bolton Town Hall is a municipal building in All Saints Street, Little Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. The structure, which was the meeting place of the trustees of Little Bolton, is a Grade II listed building. History The town hall ...

as its regular meeting place and it remained as such for some 35 years. The current town hall was promoted by the mayor, J.R. Wolfendon, in the early 1860s. The cost was expected to be between £70,000 and £80,000 but more than doubled to £167,000, equivalent to £ in . Bolton Corporation held a competition for a new town hall design in the 1860s. It was won by a pupil of

Cuthbert Brodrick Cuthbert Brodrick FRIBA (1 December 1821 – 2 March 1905) was a British architect, whose most famous building is Leeds Town Hall. Early life Brodrick was born in the Yorkshire port of Hull where his father was a well-to-do merchant and sh ...

, architect William Hill from Leeds. For his design of a scaled-down version of

Leeds Town Hall Leeds Town Hall is a 19th-century municipal building on The Headrow (formerly Park Lane), Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Planned to include law courts, a council chamber, offices, a public hall, and a suite of ceremonial rooms, it was built b ...

, Hill was awarded £120 (equivalent to £12,000 in 2020) for the design, which originally included no tower, but one was added later. During its construction, Hill was assisted by a local architect, George Woodhouse, but the design was entirely Hill's. The final cost of the town hall came to £167,000 (equivalent to £15,130,000 in 2020), this being the most expensive town hall built up to that time. It was opened by the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the ruler ...

on 4 June 1873. In the early 1930s the town hall was extended and a crescent of civic buildings was built to the rear on a new street to provide office space. The extension matches the Victorian building externally, but is plain inside and contains offices. The town hall had a central hall lit by a

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

that was gutted by fire on 14 November 1981. It was rebuilt as two public halls, the Albert Hall and Festival Hall. The halls are surrounded by an outer ring of offices. The building served as the headquarters of the

for much of the 20th century and remained the local seat of government when the enlarged Bolton Council was formed in 1974. In 1978

Fred Dibnah Frederick Travis Dibnah, (29 April 1938 – 6 November 2004) was an English steeplejack and television personality, with a keen interest in mechanical engineering, who described himself as a "backstreet mechanic". When Dibnah ...

made repairs to the clock tower and its 16 stone pillars. Whilst repairing the tower he gilded the sphere at the top. During the cold war, the county standby nuclear bunker was located directly below the town hall. It dates to the second world war and would have been modernised to offer protection from nuclear attack.

Architecture

The original building on a rectangular plan is designed in the neoclassical style in the form of a temple with a tall

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including th ...

-style clocktower. The town hall has a high basement storey and two principal floors above in sandstone

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

which is rusticated at basement level. It has a broad flight of steps up to a five-bay portico with a pediment in which there is a high-relief sculpture by

William Calder Marshall William Calder Marshall ARSA (18 March 1813 – 16 June 1894) was a Scottish sculptor. Life He was born at Gilmour Place in Edinburgh, the eldest son of William Marshall a goldsmith with a shop at 1 South Bridge and his wife Annie Calder. He ...

. All the other architectural sculpture inside and out is by Burstall and Taylor, including the main staircase, the portico and the lions which flank the steps. Either side of the entrance are five-bay ranges of two storeys with round-arched windows to the first floor. A quarter-chiming clock by Potts of Leeds was installed in the tower in 1871. In 1890 the design for Bolton Town Hall was used again by original architect William Hill as the template to build Portsmouth Town Hall, a near identical twin. Though similar in style to that of Bolton, it was conceived on a larger scale. Hill's design for the Portsmouth version added ten domes at its corners to enliven its sky-line. Portsmouth Town Hall was renamed Portsmouth Guildhall in 1926 when Portsmouth was elevated to city status.

Civic Centre

The Civic Centre on Le Mans Crescent, housing the

Bolton Museum Bolton Museum is a public museum and art gallery in the town of Bolton, England, owned by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council. The museum is housed within the grade II listed Le Mans Crescent near Bolton Town Hall and shares its main entranc ...

, library, health clinics, and courts, was built in 1932–39 to the designs of Bradshaw Gass and Hope. Its plan is slightly asymmetric with end pavilions flanking a shallow crescent. There was previously a police station within the northern half of the building adjacent to the Magistrates' Court. This has been converted to offices although the former cells are still used for holding those facing transfer to prison or awaiting appearances before the court. The building has a steel frame faced in sandstone ashlar with parapets and a slate roof. It has three central arches accessing Cheadle Square. The Civic Buildings are Grade II listed.

References

Notes Bibliography * * *

External links

1873 – Bolton Town Hall, Lancashire
{{Buildings and structures in Bolton Buildings and structures in Bolton City and town halls in Greater Manchester Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester William Hill buildings Bradshaw, Gass & Hope buildings Government buildings completed in 1873

History

Architecture

Civic Centre

See also

References

External links