Lytham St Annes Town Hall is a municipal building on the South Promenade in

Lytham St Annes Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population of the built-up area at the 2021 United Kingdom census, ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. The structure, which is used as the headquarters of

Fylde Borough The Borough of Fylde is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. It covers part of the Fylde plain, after which it is named. The council's headquarters are in St Annes. The borough also contains the towns of Ki ...

Council, is a locally listed building.

History

The building was originally commissioned by William John Porritt through his development business, the

St Anne's on the Sea Land and Building Company St. Anne's on the Sea Land and Building Company was formed in 1874 and played an integral part in the development of the new town of St.Anne's on the Sea from 1875. The company had its roots in the Rossendale area and the most significant invest ...

, for use as the "Southdown Hydro Hotel": it has been described by the Lytham St Annes Civic Society as "one of the best examples of a Porritt development". It was designed in the Victorian style, built in stone quarried in East Lancashire and was completed in 1898. The design involved a main frontage with six bays facing onto the South Promenade; the third bay from the left featured a porch with a round headed entrance flanked by pairs of

colonette A colonnette is a small slender column, usually decorative, which supports a Beam (structure), beam or lintel. Colonnettes have also been used to refer to a feature of furnishings such as a dressing table and Grandfather clock, case clock, and eve ...

s supporting a moulded

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, ...

. The building was fenestrated, on the lower two floors of the outer bays, by square headed bay

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent ma ...

s, on the lower two floors of the second and fourth bays, by canted bay windows and, on the second floor, by two-light pedimented

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s. The bays were all gabled, with the outer bays featuring large gables than the inner bays. The interior decoration included Minton tiles on the walls and fine stained glass windows. The proprietor, a Mrs Spyree, claimed that the building enjoyed "the best situation facing pier and sea." In 1922, St Anne's-on-the-Sea Urban District Council merged with Lytham Urban District Council to form Lytham St Annes Metropolitan Borough. Lytham Urban District Council did not have a permanent headquarters at that time and

St Anne's Public Offices St Annes's Public Offices is a municipal building in Clifton Drive, St Anne's-on-the-Sea, Lancashire, England. The building, which was the headquarters of St Anne's-on-the-Sea Urban District Council, is Grade II listed building, listed. History ...

were not large enough to accommodate the enlarged authority, so the new civic leaders decided to acquire the Southdown Hydro Hotel which was conveniently located just to the rear of the old public offices. The former hotel was converted and brought into use as "a modern and well-equipped town hall" in 1925. Internally, the principal new room created was the council chamber. In June 1925, John Booth of the local grocery business,

Booths E. H. Booth & Co., Limited, trading as Booths, is a chain of high-end supermarkets in Northern England. Most of its branches are in Lancashire, but there are also branches in Cheshire, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. It has been ...

, donated a painting by the artist,

Richard Ansdell Richard Ansdell (11 May 1815 – 20 April 1885) was a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British painter of animals and genre work, genre scenes. Life Ansdell was born in Liverpool (then in Lancashire), the son of Thomas Griffiths ...

, depicting a young girl with a sheepdog and a herd of sheep. It was given to the council on condition that it be hung in the council chamber. This painting entitled "the Herd Lassie" was the start of the

Lytham St Annes Art Collection The Lytham St Annes Art Collection is a public art collection of over 240 artworks in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire. Fylde Borough Council are the custodians of the paintings, sculptures, prints and artefacts that are mostly held within the Lytham ...

which was assembled following further donations by other members of the Booth family, by the former mayor, Alderman James Herbert Dawson, and by other benefactors. The building went on to become the local seat of government for the enlarged Fylde District Council in 1974.

References

{{Borough of Fylde buildings Government buildings completed in 1898 Lytham St Annes City and town halls in Lancashire Buildings and structures in the Borough of Fylde St Annes on the Sea