Slaithwaite Town Hall, also known as Empire House is a former municipal building in Lewisham Road in the town of

Slaithwaite Slaithwaite ( , ; Old Norse for "timber-fell thwaite/clearing") is a town in the Kirklees district of West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is in the Colne Valley and on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England. The building, which served as the offices of Colne Valley Urban District Council, is now a business centre.

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the woollen industry, a

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 ...

was established in the Slaithwaite area in 1862. In the late 1880s, the local board decided to commission purpose-built public offices for the area: the site they chose was open land at the junction of Station Road and Lewisham Road. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the proprietor of the Slaithwaite Spinning Company, William Varley, on 19 May 1892. It was designed by a local architect, James B. Eagland, 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 ...

, built in

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

brick and was completed later that year. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the Lewisham Road; the second bay from the left, which projected forward, was fenestrated by a segmental window on the ground floor and a

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 ...

on the first floor and was surmounted by a

Dutch gable A Dutch gable or Flemish gable is a gable whose sides have a shape made up of one or more curves and which has a pediment at the top. The gable may be an entirely decorative projection above a flat section of roof line, or may be the terminat ...

with a projecting

flagpole A flagpole, flagmast, flagstaff, or staff is a pole designed to support a flag. If it is taller than can be easily reached to raise the flag, a cord is used, looping around a pulley at the top of the pole with the ends tied at the bottom. The fla ...

. The other bays were fenestrated by segmental windows on the ground floor, and by

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s with window cills and alternating triangular and segmental pediments on the first floor. Internally, the principal room was the board room for the local board. The local board was replaced by Slaithwaite Urban District Council, with its headquarters in the former public offices, in 1894. The building acted as the venue for parliamentary election results and it was there that the Reverend Charles Leach was duly elected member of parliament for

Colne Valley The Colne Valley is a steep sided valley on the east flank of the Pennine Hills in the English county of West Yorkshire. It takes its name from the River Colne which rises above the town of Marsden and flows eastward towards Huddersfield. ...

at the

January 1910 general election The January 1910 UK general election was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. Called amid a constitutional crisis after the Conservative-dominated House of Lords rejected the People's Budget, the Liberal government, seeking a mandate, los ...

. Leach went on to serve as a hospital visitor during the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and his seat was declared vacant under the Lunacy (Vacating of Seats) Act in August 1916, when he became the only member of parliament ever to be disqualified under that Act. A war memorial, in the form of a stone cross on a

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

, which was intended to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who died in the

, was erected to the immediate west of the town hall in the 1920s. An underground air raid shelter was established in the grounds during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Colne Valley Urban District Council after it was formed in 1937, but it ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

Kirklees Council Kirklees Council, also known as Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council, is the local authority for the metropolitan borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. As a metropolitan borough council it provides the majority of local government ser ...

was formed in 1974. The building went on to become the offices of a fashion exhibition organiser and then, after a change of ownership in October 2019 and a programme of refurbishment works costing £450,000, it re-opened as a business centre known as Empire House in July 2021.

References

{{City and town halls in West Yorkshire Government buildings completed in 1892 City and town halls in West Yorkshire Colne Valley