The Old Shire Hall is a former municipal building in

Old Elvet Elvet is an area of the city of Durham, in County Durham, in England. It is situated on the opposite side of the River Wear from Durham Cathedral and forms the south-eastern part of central Durham. Elvet is currently unparished. Historically, ...

, Durham. The building, which was the headquarters of

Durham County Council Durham County Council is a local authority administering all significant local government functions in the unitary authority area of County Durham in North East England. The council area covers part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, e ...

from 1898 to 1963, is a Grade II listed building.

History

In the 18th century the justices held the

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

in the Shire Hall (also known as the County House) beside Palace Green; they then moved to a new courthouse at the head of

in 1811. Following the implementation of the Local Government Act 1888, which established county councils in every county, it became necessary to find a meeting place for

. County leaders decided that the courthouse was not suitable for the purpose and chose to procure county council offices nearby: the site they selected in Old Elvet had previously been occupied by a row of large residential properties. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the Lord Lieutenant of Durham, the Earl of Durham in April 1896. It was designed by Harry Barnes and Frederick Coates in the Baroque Revival style, built by David and John Rankin at a cost of £14,000 and was officially opened by Alderman Samuel Storey on 26 July 1898. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays in red terracotta facing onto Old Elvet with the end bays slightly projected forwards; the central section, which also slightly projected forwards, featured an arched doorway on the ground floor with a wrought-iron grill; there was a pair of round headed windows on the first floor and a tower with a copper-clad dome at roof level. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber. A new wing, banded in stone and brick, which added an extra three bays to the east of the main building, was completed in 1905. A memorial to county council staff who had died in the First and Second World Wars was unveiled by the Chairman of the County Council, Councillor Thomas Benfold, on 10 November 1948. Nikolaus Pevsner did not take a favourable view of the building in his 1953 Buildings of England volume, where he described the building as a "deplorable" building "with monumental intentions and disastrous effects" whose "cursedly imperishable red Victorian brick... is such crushing proof of technical proficiency and aesthetic dumbness". After the County Council moved to County Hall at Aykley Heads in October 1963, the Shire Hall served as the administrative headquarters of

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

until September 2012 when the University moved to the Mountjoy site, in the Palatine Centre on Stockton Road. The Shire Hall then stood vacant until it was converted for use as a hotel by Brims of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

to the plans of HL Architects: it re-opened as the Hotel Indigo in March 2018.

References

{{reflist Grade II listed buildings in County Durham D Government buildings completed in 1898 Baroque Revival architecture