Grantham Guildhall is a municipal building on St Peter's Hill,

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England. It 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

The building was commissioned to replace the aging guildhall and jail on the corner of Guildhall Street and High Street. The site selected for the new building had previously been occupied by a large mansion that had been converted into a school known as "The Firs". A statue of

Sir Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His book (''Mathe ...

by the sculptor,

William Theed William Theed (1804 – 9 September 1891), also known as William Theed the younger, was a British sculptor, the son of the sculptor and painter William Theed the elder (1764–1817). He specialised in portraiture, and his services were extensi ...

, was erected in front of the school in 1858 and therefore pre-dates the guildhall. The new building, which was designed by William Watkins in the

Renaissance Revival style Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of ...

and built by William Wartnaby of Little Gonerby, was completed in 1869. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto St Peter's Hill; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured three arched openings separated by

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...

columns on the ground floor, a prominent

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, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window generally projects from an ...

on the first floor and a large

lantern A lantern is a source of lighting, often portable. It typically features a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle, a oil lamp, wick in oil, or a thermoluminescence, thermoluminescent Gas mantle, mesh, and often a ...

with a clock above. The hour-striking clock was by J. Smith & Sons of Derby; a bell was mounted in a separate turret. The main building accommodated a ballroom and a sessions hall; a prison building was erected at the same time as was a separate governor's residence. After the prison building was no longer required, it was leased to Robinson and Barnsdale, cigar makers, in 1882 and then leased to Grantham Technical Institute in 1897. 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 ...

parts of Grantham were badly damaged by bombing and the guildhall was protected by sandbags and blastwalls. The guildhall was the meeting place of Grantham Borough Council until 1974 when the enlarged South Kesteven District Council was formed and the guildhall ceased to be the local seat of government; after a period of disuse it was converted into an arts centre, to a design by Tim Benton, in 1991. The mayor's parlour in the guildhall remains the meeting place for the

charter trustees In England and Wales, charter trustees are set up to maintain the continuity of a town charter or city charter after a district with the status of a borough or city has been abolished, until such time as a civil parish council or in larger settle ...

who continue to appoint the mayor of Grantham each year. A blue plaque was unveiled on the wall of the old prison building in 2014 to commemorate the life of Edith Smith, the first woman police officer in the United Kingdom with full

power of arrest The power of arrest is a mandate given by a central authority that allows an individual to remove a criminal's (or suspected criminal's) liberty. The power of arrest can also be used to protect a person, or persons from harm or to protect damage t ...

. In 2015, a modern relief stone plaque commemorating

Eleanor of Castile Eleanor of Castile (1241 – 28 November 1290) was Queen of England as the first wife of Edward I. She was educated at the Castilian court and also ruled as Countess of Ponthieu in her own right () from 1279. After diplomatic efforts to s ...

was installed at the guildhall close to the site where an original Eleanor cross was erected by

King Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 ...

in around 1294. The original Eleanor Cross had been destroyed in 1645 during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

. The arts centre continues to provide support for

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...

s such as "Peter Pan" in December 2017, "Dick Whittington" in December 2018, "Cinderella" in December 2019 and "Jack and The Beanstalk" in December 2021.

References

{{reflist 1869 establishments in England City and town halls in Lincolnshire Grade II listed buildings in Lincolnshire Government buildings completed in 1869 Buildings and structures in Grantham Cultural depictions of Eleanor of Castile