County Hall or West Riding County Hall stands at the corner of Bond Street and Cliff Parade in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It is the main headquarters of

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, also known as Wakefield Council, is the local authority of the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council and provides a full range of local government services inc ...

. It is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

History

Following the implementation of the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

, which established county councils in every county, there was a need to find a permanent meeting place for the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

County Council. Its first meeting was held in February 1889 in

Wakefield Town Hall Wakefield Town Hall is a municipal building in Wood Street in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It remains a venue for weddings and civil partnerships but is no longer the headquarters of Wakefield Council which is now based at County Hall. ...

, at the invitation of the Borough Council.''The West Riding County Council 1889–1974'' For a permanent home the choice was between Leeds and Wakefield; much debate and correspondence resulted, in 1892, in the selection of Wakefield. The site chosen for the new County Hall was that of Rishworth House on Bond Street, a gentleman's house of 1812 bought by the West Riding

Quarter Sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

in 1878. The County Council had received Rishworth House at its creation and used it for committee rooms, offices and a residence for the Deputy Clerk. In commissioning a new home, the County Council held an open architectural competition, instructing competitors to prefer "the style of architecture will be left to the competitors but the Queen Anne or Renaissance School of Architecture appears suited to an old town like Wakefield". The winning design was by James S Gibson, who proposed a

Gothic design Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It ...

. The Council Chamber was placed on an upper storey and in the centre of the building, so as to minimize noise from the street. The interior decoration was largely designed by

Henry Charles Fehr Henry Charles Fehr FRBS (4 November 1867 – 13 May 1940) was a British monumental and architectural sculptor active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He produced several notable public sculptures, war memorials and works fo ...

. On the main staircase an owl and some scales represent meditation and justice, against which recline the two winged figures of debate and dictation. The seal of the West Riding County Council hangs on each side. A second panel represents the main industries of the West Riding, surrounding the White Rose of York, all entwined by a serpent symbolising wisdom, crowned with a spray of oak for independence; beneath sprays of the honesty plant and the flax interwoven with each other represent honesty and industry. Two further panels show peace (a winged figure resting on an olive tree with ingrafted roses and sheltering a wren, doves in the tree and broken swords below) and plenty (a winged figure seated on a golden throne with arms outstretched over divers fruit and grain). Elsewhere are figures of art and science, the book of history, a winged flame representing inspiration and the lamp of knowledge; globes representing the domains of art and science appear below. The contract for the building of the hall, with Messrs. Armitage and Hodgson of Leeds contained a fair wages clause and a ban on subcontracting to employees in sweated trades. County Hall was built in the four years from 1894 and opened by the Marquess of Ripon on 22 February 1898. New wings were added to the original building between 1912 and 1915 by George Crook of Wakefield, but in a style which matched Gibson's original design. In 1913 a delegation from a joint committee of

Middlesex County Council Middlesex County Council was the principal local government body in the administrative county of Middlesex from 1889 to 1965. The county council was created by the Local Government Act 1888, which also removed the most populous part of the c ...

and the Middlesex

visited Wakefield and commissioned a copy of the Council Chamber for their proposed

Middlesex Guildhall The Middlesex Guildhall is the home of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. It stands on the south-west corner of Parliament Square in London. It is a Grade II* listed building. Construc ...

. Princess Elizabeth, accompanied by the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not prod ...

, visited county hall during a visit to Wakefield on 27 July 1949. In 1974 the new

West Yorkshire County Council West Yorkshire County Council (WYCC) – also known as West Yorkshire Metropolitan County Council (WYMCC) – was the top-tier local government administrative body for West Yorkshire from 1974 to 1986. A strategic authority, with responsibilitie ...

inherited the building and used it as its headquarters until it was also abolished in 1986. The City of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council acquired the building in December 1987 and implemented a major refurbishment at a cost of over £3 million. The Leader of the Council, Councillor John Pearman, unveiled a plaque to mark the acquisition of the building and its refurbishment in February 1991.

References

{{Commons Category, County Hall, Wakefield City and town halls in West Yorkshire Government buildings completed in 1898 West Riding of Yorkshire W Works by James Glen Sivewright Gibson Listed buildings in Wakefield

History

See also

References