The Municipal Offices is a municipal building in Bowling Green Road in

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

, England. The building is used as an area office for

North Northamptonshire Council North Northamptonshire Council is the local authority for North Northamptonshire, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Northamptonshire, England. It is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the funct ...

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the status of Kettering as a market town, the area became a

local government district Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

in 1872, governed by a local board. Such local government districts were reconstituted as urban districts in 1894. From 1872 until 1904 meetings were held at the

Corn Exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

. In 1904 the council moved its meeting place to Stamford Road School (now the William Knibb Centre). The council's offices also outgrew the limited space at the corn exchange and were subsequently distributed to various buildings across the town. The urban district was advanced to the status of

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

in 1938. After Kettering Grammar School relocated from its premises at Bowling Green Road to new premises at Windmill Avenue in 1965, the council took the opportunity to acquire the vacant building in Bowling Green Road to bring its offices and meeting place together in a single building. The building had been designed by

John Alfred Gotch John Alfred Gotch (28 September 1852, Kettering, Northamptonshire – 17 January 1942, Kettering, Northamptonshire) was a noted English architect and architectural historian. His brother was the Pre-Raphaelite painter and illustrator Thomas Coo ...

in the Neo-Georgian style, built in red brick with stone facings and had been completed in 1913. After conversion works the former school buildings were opened as the council's headquarters in 1966. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with thirteen bays facing onto Bowling Green Road with the end bays projected forward as pavilions; the central section of five bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a short flight of steps leading up to a doorway; there was a

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 ...

on the first floor. The other bays in the central section featured tall casement windows flanked by

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

columns, spanning the ground and first floors, and which supported a stone

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

, a brick

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and a

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

. The second floor was fenestrated by a row of eight windows and was surmounted by a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

ed frieze, a brick entablature and a modillioned cornice and, at roof level, a

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 ...

was installed. The end bays were blind but featured stone arches at second floor level. The old school hall was converted into a council chamber and a porch was added when the former school was converted for municipal use in 1965. A plaque was placed on the eastern end bay to reflect the twinning agreement that the council had entered into with

Lahnstein Lahnstein () is a ''verband''-free town of Rhein-Lahn-Kreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the Lahn with the Rhine, approximately south of Koblenz. Lahnstein was created in 1969 by the merger of the previ ...

in Germany a few years previously. The municipal building continued to serve as local seat of government after the enlarged

Kettering Borough Council Kettering is a market and industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north-east of Northampton. It is west of the River Is ...

was formed in 1974 and another plaque was added to the eastern end bay after Kettering became a sister city to

Kettering, Ohio Kettering is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. It is an inner suburb of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton. The city had a population of 57,862 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populous suburb in the Dayton metr ...

in the United States in 1978. The building was reduced to the status of an area office for

after the new council was formed with its headquarters in

Corby Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

in 2021. The building also briefly served as headquarters for the new Kettering Town Council established as part of the 2021 reforms, until the town council moved to other premises in the town in 2022.

References

{{Reflist Government buildings completed in 1913 City and town halls in Northamptonshire Buildings and structures in Kettering