Abergavenny Town Hall () is a municipal building located on Cross Street,

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; , , archaically , ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a "Gateway to Wales"; it is approximately from the England–Wales border, border with England and is loca ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South East Wales, south east of Wales. It borders Powys to the north; the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to the north and east; the Severn Estuary to the s ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. The town hall, which also houses the town's market, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The first building on the site was a market hall which had been financed by a legacy from the local member of parliament, Philip Jones, and which was completed in the early 17th century. Following their appointment in 1794, one of the first acts of the new Abergavenny Improvement Commissioners was to commission a new market hall which was designed by the well-known

Regency In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

and Georgian era architect, John Nash, and completed in 1796. In the 1860s, in anticipation of a further increases in their responsibilities, including those of an urban sanitary authority, the commissioners decided to procure a town hall which would be built on the same site. Construction of the new building, which was built with old red sandstone with Bath limestone and slate roofs, started in 1869. It was designed by Wilson and Willcox of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

in the Gothic Revival style, built by S. J. Moreland and Sons of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

and completed in 1871. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Cross Street; the central section featured an archway leading to a market hall flanked by two gothic windows on each side. There were five two-light

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 by

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...

columns on the first floor and there was a clock tower with a copper roof at the north west corner. The building incorporated a corn exchange, municipal offices, a council chamber, a market hall, an assembly room and the local poor law offices. The assembly room was converted for use as a theatre in 1906 and subsequent performers there included the

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, who gave a concert in June 1963. The building served as the headquarters of the Abergavenny Urban District Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be local seat of government when the enlarged Monmouth District Council was formed in 1974. Abergavenny Town Council, which was formed in 1981, made the building its home and installed two members of staff there. Subsequent improvements included the modernisation of the theatre in 1996. The cattle market, which had been held on the site for over 150 years, moved to Bryngwyn in Monmouthshire in December 2013. Other types of market continued to be held in the building, including a flea market which continued to be held there every Wednesday. A programme of works, designed by GWP Architecture and costing £2.2 million, to convert the building into a community hub was completed in September 2020.

References

{{Government buildings in Wales Abergavenny City and town halls in Wales Grade II listed buildings in Monmouthshire Government buildings completed in 1871