Sheffield Old Town Hall is a building in Waingate in central
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
,
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, opposite
Castle Market. 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
In William Harrison's Survey of the Manor of Sheffield, dated 29 September 1637, there is a mention of an early "Sheffield Towne Hall". The early "Sheffield Towne Hall" was replaced by a second building, which had been designed by William Renny in 1699 and opened in 1700. The second town hall was next to the
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...
, on a site with little space for extension.
The third town hall, now referred to as the "Old Town Hall", was designed by Charles Watson in the
Neoclassical style
Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...
and built between 1807 and 1808. It was designed to house not only the
Town Trustees but also the
Petty and
Quarter Sessions
The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388; they were extended to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Scotland establ ...
. Initially the main entrance faced Castle Street, where the building was three bays wide and topped by a
pediment
Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...
; on the Waingate side the building was of five
bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...
.
Thwaites & Reed
Thwaites & Reed has been in continuous manufacture since its foundation and claims to be the oldest clock manufacturing company in the world. Geoffrey Buggins MBE, the last of the original family clockmakers, saw drawings of Thwaites clocks dati ...
provided a clock in 1809,
which was housed in a small turret above the pediment.
It was extended in 1833.
The first Town Council was elected in 1843 and took over the lease of the Town Trustees' hall in 1866. That year the building was extensively renovated and extended to designs by William Flockton (1804–64) of Sheffield and his partner George Abbott.
[ ]Flockton & Abbott
Flockton's were a series of architectural firms in the 19th and early 20th centuries, based in Sheffield, England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Gre ...
added a new central clock tower
Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...
over a new main entrance on Waingate, the materials of which came from the parts of the building which had been demolished. The new clock was provided by G. & F. Cope of Nottingham.Ionic columns
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
''in antis'', with urns on the 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 ...
above it');courtroom
A courtroom is the enclosed space in which courts of law are held in front of a judge. A number of courtrooms, which may also be known as "courts", may be housed in a courthouse. In recent years, courtrooms have been equipped with audiovisual ...
s were linked by underground passages to the neighbouring Sheffield Police Offices.[
By the 1890s Sheffield's administration had again outgrown the building, and the current ]Sheffield Town Hall
Sheffield Town Hall is a municipal building on Pinstone Street in the Sheffield, City of Sheffield, England. The building is used by Sheffield City Council, and also contains a publicly displayed collection of silverware. It is a Grade I liste ...
was built further south. The Old Town Hall was again extended between 1896 and 1897, by the renamed Flockton, Gibbs & Flockton, and became the local meeting place for the Crown Court and the High Court. The drinking fountain on the Castle Street side of the building was added at this time. In 1973 the Old Town Hall was made 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, H ...
.[
In 1995 these courts moved to the new ]Law Courts
A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and administer justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law.
Courts genera ...
in West Bar, and, since then, the building has remained disused.[ In 2008 the ]Victorian Society
The Victorian Society is a UK charity and amenity society that campaigns to preserve and promote interest in Victorian and Edwardian architecture and heritage built between 1837 and 1914 in England and Wales. As a statutory consultee, by l ...
named the building as one of its top ten buildings most at-risk. A campaign group, The Friends of the Old Town Hall was formed in November 2014 with the aim of getting the building's owner G1 London Property to state its intention for its future use. In September 2015 the building was put for sale with an asking price of £2,000,000. The sale brochure was withdrawn from the internet after about ten days. In December 2019 plans were approved to develop the building into Pod hotel rooms and apartments. Sheffield City Council said the 42,000 sq ft building can be developed while "preserving it as much as possible". The new plans are for serviced apartments, shops, cafes and hotel rooms.
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
{{SheffieldStructures
City and town halls in South Yorkshire
Clock towers in the United Kingdom
Former courthouses in England
Government buildings completed in 1808
Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield
Neoclassical architecture in England
Towers in South Yorkshire