Selby Town Hall is a municipal building in York Street in

Selby Selby is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, south of York on the River Ouse. At the 2021 Census, it had a population of 17,193. The town was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire; from 1974 until 2023, ...

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 structure, which was built as a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

chapel, is now the home of Selby Town Council.

History

Selby Town Old Council Offices - geograph

The

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 ...

in Selby, which was established in 1851, established its first purpose-built offices on the corner of Gowthorpe and New Lane. These offices were designed in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

, built in red brick with stone dressings and were completed in the late 19th century. The building featured a

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

with a

conical roof A conical roof or cone roof is a cone-shaped roof that is circular at its base and terminates in a point. Distribution Conical roofs are frequently found on top of towers in medieval town fortifications and castles, where they may either sit d ...

on the corner with New Lane, arched openings on the ground floor,

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed windows on the first floor and attic windows in the gables above. The offices became the headquarters of Selby Urban District Council when it was formed in 1894 and were converted for use as a branch of the York County Savings Bank after the council moved to modern premises in Park Street in the 1960s. Meanwhile, the

Primitive Methodist Church The Primitive Methodist Church is a Christian denomination within the holiness movement. Originating in early 19th-century England as a Christian revival, revivalist movement within Methodism, it was heavily influenced by American evangelist Loren ...

, which had been established by William Clowes in the early 19th century, decided to establish a chapel in Selby in 1840. The church initially operated from a small chapel in a yard off Gowthorpe but, in the 1850s, Lord Londesborough donated a site in York Street to create a more substantial building. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 4 April 1862. It was designed in the

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

, built in brown brick with stone dressings and was officially opened on 10 October 1862. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the corner of Gowthorpe and Brooke Street; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured two round headed doorways separated by a

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 ...

column and 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 ...

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; there was a two-light mullioned window on the first floor with an oculus in the gable above and there were

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

s and

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape ...

s at roof level. It was renovated in 1926 but, following a reduction in religious attendances, it was decommissioned as a chapel in August 1956. The building served as a health clinic in the late 1950s and then operated as a tyre depot under the management of Moss Tyres and then ATS Group in the 1960s and 1970s. It then fell vacant in the 1980s and remained derelict until it was acquired by Selby Town Council in 1990. After an extensive programme of refurbishment works, which involved the creation of an events venue as well as offices for the town council, the building was reopened in 1996. The building received a Good Design Award from the Selby Civic Society, for the quality of the refurbishment works, in 1998. Performers at the town hall since then have included the singer songwriters Boo Hewerdine and

Brooks Williams Brooks Williams (born November 10, 1958) is an American acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter. His style combines roots, jazz, blues, classical, and folk. He has released albums of contemporary folk music, blues music, and of instrumental ...

in December 2012, and the singer songwriter

Ralph McTell Ralph McTell (born Ralph May; 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (1969), which ...

in February 2019.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1862 City and town halls in North Yorkshire Selby