Felling Town Hall, formerly Felling Council Offices, is a former municipal building in Sunderland Road,

Felling Felling is the process of cutting down trees,"Feller" def. 2. and "Felling", def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd ed. via CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press. 2009. an element of the task of logging. The person cutting the trees is ...

, a district of

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

, in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...

, England. The building, which is currently in residential use, 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

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the mining industry, a

local board of health A local board of health (or simply a ''local board'') was a local authority in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulat ...

was established in Felling in 1868. The local board established its offices in the committee rooms of the Felling Store

Co-operative Society A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democra ...

before relocating to 4 Wesley Terrace in 1873. After the Felling Local Board of Health was replaced by Felling Urban District Council in 1894, the council officers for the new council were initially based in the offices in Wesley Terrace. After finding this arrangement unsatisfactory, the new council decided to commission dedicated offices. The site they selected was open ground on the south side of Sunderland Road. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by John Simpson, the chairman of the council, in January 1902. It was designed by the council surveyor, Henry Miller, in the

Baroque Revival style The Baroque Revival, also known as Neo-Baroque (or Second Empire architecture in France and Wilhelminism in Germany), was an architectural style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term is used to describe architecture and architectu ...

, built by John Wilkinson in

rubble masonry Rubble masonry or rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Some medieval cathedral walls have outer shells of ashlar wi ...

with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone dressings and was officially opened on 2 March 1903. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of seven bays facing onto Sunderland Road. A park was laid out to the east of the building and opened in July 1910. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the district council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Gateshead Borough Council was formed in 1974. The final meeting of the council, held in the council chamber on 28 March 1974, concluded with speeches and a rendition of the

Hokey Cokey The Hokey Pokey (also known as Hokey Cokey in the United Kingdom, Ireland, some parts of Australia, and the Caribbean) is a participation dance with a distinctive accompanying tune and lyric structure. It is well-known in English-speaking countr ...

. The building subsequently served as the area offices for Gateshead Borough Council's housing department, and was

grade II listed 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, H ...

in 1985. The building was declared surplus to requirements in the early 1990s, and was subsequently made available for use as a temporary accommodation. In September 2023, planning consent was granted to convert the building into 14 apartments.

Architecture

The building is constructed of sandstone, with a slate roof. It has two storeys and a basement, with a central four-stage tower, which is projected forward. The tower incorporates a doorway with a semi-circular

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

flanked by

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s and

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

supporting a triangular

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

in the first stage, a rounded headed window enclosed in an

aedicula In religion in ancient Rome, ancient Roman religion, an ''aedicula'' (: ''aediculae'') is a small shrine, and in classical architecture refers to a Niche (architecture), niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of columns an ...

in the second stage, a blind third stage, and an oculus also enclosed in an aedicula in the fourth stage, all surmounted by a steep French-style roof with cresting. The two-bay sections on either side of the central tower are fenestrated by square headed windows with

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

s on the ground floor, by round headed windows with

keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...

on the first floor and by single windows with segmental pediments at attic level. The outer bays, which are projected forward and gabled, are fenestrated by pairs of square headed windows with architraves on the ground floor, by Venetian windows on the first floor and by round headed windows enclosed in aediculae in the gables above. Internally, the principal room is the council chamber which is long and wide. The arms of the former council in the pediment above the door feature a flaming torch, the crest of the Brandling family, which owned the local collieries.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1903 City and town halls in Tyne and Wear Grade II listed buildings in Tyne and Wear Felling, Tyne and Wear