Macclesfield Town Hall is a Georgian municipal building in the Market Place of

Macclesfield Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its eas ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...

, England. Dating originally from 1823–24, it was designed by Francis Goodwin in the Greek Revival style, and extended in 1869–71 by James Stevens and again in 1991–92.Hartwell ''et al.'', pp. 459–60 The building incorporates the former Borough Police Station. The town hall is listed at grade II*.

History

The first structure on this site was a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

guildhall which dated back to at least the 13th century and which was connected to a bakehouse on the north side. The foundation stone for the current town hall was laid on 4 September 1823. It was designed by Francis Goodwin in the Greek Revival style and completed in 1824. It was extended between 1869 and 1871 to a design by James Stevens and again between 1991 and 1992.Hartwell ''et al.'', pp. 459–60 The

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are r ...

and Duchess of Gloucester attended a reception at the town hall, to celebrate the 750th anniversary of the granting of a charter to the town, on 19 July 2011.

Location and description

Macclesfield Town Hall and old Police Station - geograph

The town hall stands at on Churchside and Chestergate in Macclesfield's Market Place. The two-storey

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 ...

building is in

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...

style. The original design is similar to Francis Goodwin's previous design for the (now-demolished)

Manchester Old Town Hall Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

, and is modelled on the Erechtheion in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

. The Churchside façade of 1823–24, which Clare Hartwell and co-authors describe as "a little constricted", has a large central

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cul ...

with four plain ( unfluted)

Ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite o ...

topped with a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

. The portico is flanked by single bays, with

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s divided into three parts on the first floor. On the ground floor is a simple sash window to the left-hand side and a double doorway to the right. A wider west front on Chestergate in the same style was added in 1869–71 by James Stevens, a local architect from the town. It has nine bays, with a central portico that matches the Churchside one. The doorway, now the building's main entrance, is topped with an

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can a ...

of polished

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

. Flanking the portico are three bays delineated by

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s. The inner two bays have sash windows to both ground and first floors that are divided into three parts by pilasters. Stevens' design also included a steeple that was not built. Old Borough Police Station

The building incorporates the former Borough Police Station at what now forms the rear. Added by Stevens, it adjoins Goodwin's Churchside façade. The entrance is flanked by paired sash windows. Over the ground floor is carved "BOROUGH POLICE STATION". The extension of 1991–92, by Conder UK and HLM Architects, is a Georgian-style, two-storey office building, in red brick with faux stone dressings. The courtyard contains stones from the porch of

Macclesfield Castle Macclesfield Castle (also known as Buckingham Castle or Buckingham Palace) was a fortified manor house in Macclesfield, Cheshire (). John de Macclesfield began construction of the castle in 1398. It was made from sandstone, and was square with ...

, dating from around 1398.

Interior

The Assembly Room on the first floor retains the original Goodwin decoration. It occupies the building's entire east side, with six columns matching the exterior portico running down each side, immediately adjacent to the walls. It has a large

chandelier A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent ...

. Much of the remaining interior, including the Council Chamber and Grand Stair, is attributed to Stevens in around 1870, and is described by Hartwell ''et al.'' as "very Victorian." The Council Chamber on the first floor has pilasters in pairs on the walls and a coffered ceiling. The Grand Stair is roofed by a domed lantern with painted glass. Its stone staircase has a cast-iron

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its c ...

, which incorporates lights on the

newel A newel, also called a central pole or support column, is the central supporting pillar of a staircase. It can also refer to an upright post that supports and/or terminates the handrail of a stair banister (the "newel post"). In stairs having str ...

posts. The "Picture Book", a sculpture by Joseph Durham, dates from 1867. There is also a plaster sculpture of the goddess Artemis by Hamo Thorneycroft, dating from 1880. File:Glazed Dome in Town Hall.jpg, Painted glass lantern File:Council Chamber Detail of ceiling.jpg, Detail of the Council Chamber coffered ceiling File:Town Hall Interior Chandelier detail.jpg, Detail of the Assembly Room ceiling and chandelier

Modern usage

The 1990s extension houses council offices. The building's function rooms can be hired for meetings and events, and are licensed as a venue for civil weddings.

References

;Source *Hartwell C., Hyde M., Hubbard E., Pevsner N. ''The Buildings of England: Cheshire'' (2nd edn) (Yale University Press; 2011) ({{ISBN, 978 0 300 17043 6)

External links