County Hall is a municipal facility at Spetchley Road in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

, Worcestershire. It is the headquarters of

Worcestershire County Council Worcestershire County Council is the county council for the non-metropolitan county of Worcestershire in England. The most recent elections to it were in 2021. Worcestershire County Council has its headquarters at County Hall in Worcester, w ...

History

For much of the 20th century the Shire Hall in Foregate Street was the meeting place of

. Following the amalgamation of Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire County Council to form

Hereford and Worcester County Council Hereford and Worcester County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Hereford and Worcester in west England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1974 and was abolished on 31 March 1998. The county council was based at C ...

in 1974, the new county leaders decided to procure a purpose-built county hall: the site they selected had been open land just south of Nunnery Wood. Construction of the new building began in 1974. It was designed by Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall & Partners in the Brutalist style, built by the local contractor, Espley-Tyas, and was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 4 May 1978. The design for the building, which made extensive use of red brick, took the form of a series of interconnected pavilions. The central pavilion contained the public areas, meeting rooms and Riverside Café while the other pavilions accommodated the council officers, their departments and the council chamber. The landscaping included a lake, together with a waterfall, to the south west of the main building. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber: an exhibition space was subsequently established outside the council chamber at which local artists would display their work. The County Record Office was installed in a purpose-built annex to the north east of the main building in 1985, and, following the children's television series

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Leonardo, Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Miche ...

, live

terrapin Terrapins are one of several small species of turtle (order Testudines) living in fresh or brackish water. Terrapins do not form a taxonomic unit and may not be closely related. Many belong to the families Geoemydidae and Emydidae. The name " ...

s were released into the lake in the 1990s. The building became the home of

following the local boundary changes in 1998. The former

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...

weather presenter

Wincey Willis 1948 births Living people British infotainers Weather presenters Wincey Willis (born Florence Winsome Leighton; 8 August 1948) is a British television and radio broadcaster who was most active in the 1980s. She is perhaps best known for bein ...

visited County Hall to launch a scheme, organised by the British Trust Conservation Volunteers, to help unemployed people to return to work in March 2004, and, following the refurbishment of the council chamber, the

Duke of Kent Duke of Kent is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of Great Britain and the United Kingdom, most recently as a royal dukedom for the fourth son of King George V. Since 1942, the title has been held by Prince Edw ...

also visited County Hall and unveiled a plaque there on 19 February 2009. Works of art at County Hall include a painting by the rural landscape artist, David Bates, depicting a herd of cows crossing the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_ ...

, and a sculpture by Sandy O'Connor, depicting a

heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychu ...

eating a fish, in the lake to the south west of the building.

References

{{reflist W Buildings and structures in Worcestershire Government buildings completed in 1978 1978 establishments in England