Runcorn Town Hall is in Heath Road,

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's coun ...

, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. It was originally built as Halton Grange, a mansion for Thomas Johnson, a local industrialist. After passing through the ownership of two other industrialists, it was purchased in the 1930s by Runcorn Urban District Council and converted into their offices. Since 1974, it has been the meeting place for Halton Borough Council.

History

In January 1854 the land on which the building stands was bought by Thomas Johnson from Francis Selkeld for £4,280 (). Thomas was the younger brother in the partnership of John & Thomas Johnson, soap and

alkali In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of ...

manufacturers in Runcorn. In 1853–56 a mansion was built for Thomas on the land to a design by Charles Verelst (formerly Reed). The name of the mansion was Halton Grange and its gardens were planned by Edward Kemp. In the 1860s the Johnson brothers became involved in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

by trying to break a naval

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which ar ...

Charleston Charleston most commonly refers to: * Charleston, South Carolina * Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital * Charleston (dance) Charleston may also refer to: Places Australia * Charleston, South Australia Canada * Charleston, Newfoun ...

but all their ships were sunk, resulting in a considerable loss of money. They eventually became

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

in 1871. In that year Halton Grange and its surrounding farm were sold to Charles Hazlehurst for £10,428 (). Charles Hazlehurst was the junior partner in the other soap and alkali business in Runcorn, Hazlehurst & Sons. Charles died in 1878, leaving Halton Grange to his son, Charles Whiteway Hazlehurst, with a life interest to his wife, Julia, who died in 1903. In 1904 the house was leased to Francis Boston, the owner of a

tannery Tanning may refer to: * Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather * Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin ** Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun ** Sunless tanning, application of a stain or d ...

in Runcorn, who bought it in 1909 for £5,000 (). Francis Boston died in 1929 and the house and grounds were put up for auction. In 1931 Frederick Clare and Latham Ryder, local builders, bought part of the grounds for £1,975 (). In 1932 Runcorn Urban District Council bought the house and the remainder of the grounds, a total of , for £2,250 (). The following year the building was converted into the offices of the Runcorn Urban District Council which relocated from Waterloo House in Waterloo Road. In 1964–65 an office block was built adjacent to the house and the house was adapted to become the civic suite. Following local government re-organisation in 1974, the building became the meeting place for Halton Borough Council. In April 2015, the

Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curre ...

visited the town hall as part of celebrations for the 1,100th anniversary of the town.

Description

Exterior

The exterior of the building is rendered and the roof is of

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

. The building is in two storeys in the style of an

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italia ...

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

, with a belvedere rising to four storeys. The authors of the ''

Buildings of England The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were published b ...

'' series suggest it has similarities with

Osborne House Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort, Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed ...

. The building has three bays on each front. The entrance front has a Tuscan

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many c ...

with an open

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

above it. The bay between the portico and the tower has a triple round-headed window with another balustrade above it. All corners have rusticated

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

. The upper level of the tower has triple openings which are flanked by

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s on all faces. The ground floor windows are double casements and those above are

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 ...

Interior

The ground floor includes the mayor's parlour, a members' room and committee rooms. On the upper floor are reception rooms and a kitchen. A more modern council chamber has been added to the rear. The entrance hall has a

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

floor, probably by Minton, in the centre of which is the figure of a young girl's head, possibly the daughter of Thomas Johnson. The mayor's parlour has an unusual feature, a window above the fireplace. This is concealed by a mirror which can be slid sideways. The chimney for the fireplace is built into the wall to the right of the window. The staircase is geometrical with

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impu ...

balusters, over which is a large window glazed in a

Venetian style Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice, originating in local building requirements, with some influence from Byzantine architecture, and some from Islamic architecture, reflecting Venice's trading ...

. The stained glass in this window depicts Runcorn's

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in it ...

. On the walls overlooking the staircase are two large paintings by

Andrea Casali Andrea Casali (17 November 1705 – 7 September 1784) was an Italian painter of the Rococo period. He was also an art dealer in England. ''Angelica e Medoro'', Bemberg Fondation Toulouse He was born in Civitavecchia in the Papal States and st ...

depicting the ''Continence of Scipio'' and '' Sophonisba taking Poison''. These paintings were commissioned in about 1743 by Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney for

Wanstead House Wanstead House was a mansion built to replace the earlier Wanstead Hall. It was commissioned in 1715, completed in 1722 and demolished in 1825. Its gardens now form the municipal Wanstead Park in the London Borough of Redbridge. History Construct ...

. The frames were designed by

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, bu ...

. In 1822 the paintings were sold, and by 1825 they were hanging in the entrance hall of Eaton Hall. It is likely that they were purchased by Thomas Johnson around the time that the house was built. Elsewhere in the building are other paintings, many of which show Runcorn in former times.

External features

Most of the area occupied by the gardens laid out by Edward Kemp forms a public park. The adjacent office block was reclad and refurbished in 2007. In 2008 a garden was established to the north of the town hall by the town of

Tongling Tongling (; former names: Tunglinghsien, Tungkwanshan) is a prefecture-level city in southern Anhui province. A river port along the Yangtze River, Tongling borders Wuhu to the east, Chizhou to the southwest and Anqing to the west. As of the ...

in China; it includes a traditional Chinese sculpture depicting acrobats.

References

Citations Sources * * * *