Filey Town Council Offices is a municipal building in Queen Street,

Filey Filey () is a seaside town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located between Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Scarborough and Bridlington on Filey Bay. Although it was a fishing village, it has a large ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England. The building is currently used to accommodate the offices and meeting place of Filey Town Council.

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the fishing 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 Filey in 1868. After the local board was succeeded by Filey Urban District Council in 1894, the new council decided to commission council offices. The site they selected was on the south side of Queen Street. Construction of the new building started in 1897. It was designed in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built in red brick 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 completed in 1898. It comprised a central block, with the council offices; a caretakers' house to the right; and a

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire apparatus, fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equ ...

to the left. The fire service relocated to Mitford Street in 1935. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the building was used by the

Ministry of Food Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

, and an air raid siren was fitted to the tower. After the war, the council established additional offices in different locations in the town. The building continued to serve as the offices of Filey Urban District Council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the council moved to the Evron Centre in John Street in 1971. Following local government reorganisation in 1974, the new town council initially established itself at the Evron Centre, but moved to the council offices in Queen Street in 1993. The round headed opening in the former fire station, designed for the use of fire engines, was converted into a public entrance. A collection of material documenting the heritage of Filey, which had been brought together by Fred Fisher and John Crimlisk to form the "Crimlisk Fisher Archive" in 1991, was deposited in the council offices. The collection included approximately 90 recordings in

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

format concerning the history of Filey, many of them interviews with residents.

Architecture

The building is constructed of brick, with a tile roof and a stone doorcase. The design of the central block involves a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Queen Street. The central bay features a round headed 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 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 ...

; there is a date stone on the first floor. The outer bays are fenestrated with segmental headed

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s on the ground floor, and with square headed casement windows on the first floor and are surmounted by gables. It has a bell tower which 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'' (195 ...

, describes as "pretty", although he describes the building overall as "unremarkable".

References

{{reflist City and town halls in North Yorkshire Government buildings completed in 1898 Filey 1898 establishments in England