Colchester Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street in Colchester, Essex, England. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Colchester Borough Council, is a Grade I listed building.

History

The first building on the site, a moot hall, was completed in 1277, remodelled in 1374 and demolished in 1843. The second building on the site, which was designed by John Blore and R. Brandon in the neoclassical style with six full-height Doric order pilasters, was completed in 1845. After it was found to be unstable civic leaders decided to procure a further building on the same site in the late 19th century. Construction of the new building began in 1897. It was designed by John Belcher in the Edwardian Baroque style and was opened by the former Prime Minister, the Earl of Rosebery in 1902. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the High Street; the central section featured an arched doorway with the borough coat of arms in the tympanum and flanked by Doric order pilasters. There was an ornate balcony above the doorway and there were also three pairs of huge engaged

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

columns spanning the first and second floors each carrying a broken pediment. Pevsner described the design as having been completed "with more braggadocio than anyone". A tower, funded by a donation from James Noah Paxman, the founder of local engineers, Davey, Paxman & Co, was erected at the east end of the building to commemorate the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

. It featured four

allegorical figure Allegorical sculpture are sculptures of personifications of abstract ideas as in allegory. Common in the western world, for example, are statues of Lady Justice representing justice, traditionally holding scales and a sword, and the statues of Pru ...

s by L. J. Watts representing engineering, military defence, agriculture and fishery. At the top of the tower the architect placed a large bronze figure representing

Saint Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

(the patron saint of Colchester) holding the True Cross. Councillor Arthur Jarmin travelled as far as Italy to locate a suitable statue of the saint, but could only find one of the Virgin Mary, which then had to be modified locally. Just below this statue four bronze ravens by Francis Carruthers Gould could be found, representing the portreeve who ran Colchester's medieval port. A chiming clock with five bells was placed in the tower, with another 15th-century bell which is thought to have hung in the original moot hall. The clock is known locally as Charlie, after Charles Hawkins, who paid for it. The main facade of the town hall featured six life-sized statues, also by Watts, depicting famous people connected with Colchester: on the south elevation,

Eudo Dapifer Eudo Dapifer (sometimes Eudo fitzHerbertBarlow ''William Rufus'' p. 474 and Eudo de Rie); (died 1120), was a Norman aristocrat who served as a steward (server, Latin 'dapifer') under William the Conqueror, William II Rufus, and Henry I. Life Eud ...

Lord Audley Baron Audley is a title in the Peerage of England first created in 1313, by writ to the Parliament of England, for Sir Nicholas Audley of Heighley Castle, a member of the Anglo-Norman Audley family of Staffordshire. The third Baron, the last ...

, William Gilbert and Samuel Harsnett, and on the east, Edward the Elder and

Boudica Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She ...

. The interior featured a marble staircase with a statue of Queen Victoria and a monument to the Colchester Martyrs. The first floor was equipped a mayoral suite, a committee room and the council chamber with a painted ceiling and

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

by Clayton and Bell. The second floor was fitted out with a large assembly hall called the Moot Hall. A fine

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

, designed and built by

Norman and Beard Norman and Beard were a pipe organ manufacturer based in Norwich from 1887 to 1916. History The origins of the company are from a business founded in Diss in 1870 by Ernest William Norman (1851–1927). In 1876 he moved to Norwich where he wen ...

with three manuals, was donated by the local member of parliament, Sir Weetman Pearson, and installed in the hall. The building, which served as the headquarters of Colchester Borough Council, eventually became inadequate in the context of the expanding responsibilities of the borough council and additional accommodation was acquired to the west of the main site in 1965.

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

visited the town hall and had lunch with civic leaders before waving to the crowds from the balcony on 20 May 1985. The building was subsequently connected by a tunnel under West Stockwell Street to new facilities at Angel Court, to the east of the main site, in 1988. Works of art in the town hall include a painting depicting a spotted dog, with the Golden Horn in the background, by

Otto Hoynck Otto Hoynck (1630, The Hague – after 1706), was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter active in England. Biography According to the RKD he was trained in The Hague as a pupil of Arnold van Ravesteyn and Pieter Hermansz Verelst (Verelst became ...

, a painting depicting merrymaking in a Flemish Village by

David Vinckboons David Vinckboons (baptized 13 August 1576 – c.1632 ) was a Dutch Golden Age painter born in Mechelen, Southern Netherlands. Vinckboons, whose name is often spelled as Vingboons, Vinghboons, Vinckebonis or Vinckboom, had at least ten chil ...

and a painting depicting Dutch Protestants fleeing from religious persecution by the Duke of Alba and seeking permission to live in Colchester in 1570 by the local artist, Harry Becker. There is also a portrait of the former

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: *Speaker of ...

, Lord Colchester, by James Lonsdale as well as a portrait of the former local member of parliament,

Charles Gray Round Charles Gray Round (28 January 1797 – 1 December 1867) was a barrister and the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for North Essex 1837–47. He also served as Recorder for Colchester, and as a magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant for Essex, ...

, by John Lucas.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Colchester (town) Government buildings completed in 1902 City and town halls in Essex Grade I listed buildings in Essex