Corbridge Town Hall is a municipal building in Princes Street in

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was known to the Romans as something like ''Corstopitum'' or ''Coriosopit ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a ceremonial counties of England, county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Ab ...

, England. The building, which is now in commercial use, is a Grade II

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

In the mid-1870s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company to raise funds for the erection of an events venue in the town in order to celebrate the

Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on 20 and 21 June 1887 to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. It was celebrated with a Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey, and a banquet to whic ...

. The site they selected was a focal location in the town facing the top of Hill Street. The building was designed by

Frank Emley Frank Emley (1861, Durham - 1938, Bedford) was an English architect, who played an important part in designing several buildings in early Johannesburg in the practices of Leck and Emley and Emley and Williamson. Early life Emley worked as an as ...

in the English Renaissance style, built with

snecked masonry Snecked masonry has a mixture of roughly squared stones of different sizes. It is laid in horizontal courses with rising stones projecting through the courses of smaller stones. Yet smaller fillers called snecks also occur in the courses. The mixt ...

at a cost of £2,000 and was officially opened on 18 June 1887. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Princes Street; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a three-stage tower with an arched doorway with an architrave and a

keystone Keystone or key-stone or ''variation'', may refer to: * Keystone (architecture), a central stone or other piece at the apex of an arch or vault * Keystone (cask), a fitting used in ale casks Business * Keystone Law, a full-service law firm * D ...

in the first stage and

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed and transomed windows in the second and third stages, all surmounted by a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

, a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

and 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 ...

with a projecting

flagpole A flagpole, flagmast, flagstaff, or staff is a pole designed to support a flag. If it is taller than can be easily reached to raise the flag, a cord is used, looping around a pulley at the top of the pole with the ends tied at the bottom. The fla ...

and

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, t ...

s. In the outer bays, there were doorways with architraves and keystones, and, in the fourth bay from the left which was rusticated, there was a doorway and a rounded headed window. There were for large

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper ...

s on the first floor. The ground floor was designed for retail use while, on the first floor, there was an assembly hall which was capable of accommodating 500 people. The architectural historian,

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ...

, liked the design which he described as "pretty" and "Norman Shavian" the latter being a reference to the architectural style of

Richard Norman Shaw Richard Norman Shaw RA (7 May 1831 – 17 November 1912), also known as Norman Shaw, was a British architect who worked from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings. He is considered to be among the g ...

. The building was primarily used for community events with the Corbridge and District Gardeners' Society being typical of the various organisations which regularly used the building. However, activity reduced in the second half of the 20th century and in the late 1970s the company that had originally developed the town hall got into financial difficulties and was wound up. After the company's assets, including the building, had been sold community activities were transferred to Corbridge Parish Hall in St Helen's Street, and the town hall was put to commercial uses including café, art gallery and restaurant.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1887 City and town halls in Northumberland Corbridge Grade II listed buildings in Northumberland