St Albans Town Hall, sometimes known as the Old Town Hall or The Courthouse, is a 19th-century building in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, England. The building, which now accommodates the St Albans Museum, 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

The town hall was commissioned to replace the

Moot Hall A moot hall is a meeting or assembly building, traditionally to decide local issues. In Anglo-Saxon England, a low ring-shaped Earthworks (engineering), earthwork served as a moot hill or moot mound, where the elders of the Hundred (county subdiv ...

in the Market Place which was completed in 1570. When the moot hall became dilapidated, a discussion took place on the location of the new building: the justices preferred a site in Romeland whereas civic leaders preferred St Peter's Street. It was eventually agreed to proceed with a new building, which would accommodate both a town hall and a courtroom, in St Peter's Street. The new building, which was designed by George Smith 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 ...

was completed in 1826.

Legal history

St Albans had its own

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 ...

because of the existence of the

Liberty of St Albans The Liberty of St Albans (also known as the ''Hundred of Albanestou'' or ''Cashio'') was a liberty situated within Hertfordshire, but enjoying the powers of an independent county. At the time of the Domesday Book the liberty was known as ''Albanes ...

when the building was constructed. The Bribery Commission held hearings in the building in 1851 to investigate the "cash for votes" scandal which had involved the local Whig Party candidate, Jacob Bell, buying votes, typically at £5 per vote; the Commissioners found that some 308 voters had received money for their votes and they decided that the Borough of St Albans should lose its parliamentary representation (the constituency was re-established in an enlarged form in 1885). In 1874, for judicial purposes, Hertfordshire was divided into two divisions by Act of Parliament, the eastern part of the county to be the

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a Ford (crossing), ford on ...

division and the western part to be known as the Liberty of St Albans Division, each maintaining separate

quarter session 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 ...

s, but being a single commission of the peace. The Act made clear that, despite its name, the St Albans division was not to be deemed a liberty in any future legislation. Following the implementation of the

Courts Act 1971 The Courts Act 1971The citation of this act by this short title is authorised bsection 59(1)of this act. (c. 23) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the purpose of which was to reform and modernise the courts system of England and ...

, the

assizes The assizes (), or courts of assize, 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 ex ...

and the quarter sessions were superseded by crown court hearings on 1 January 1972. The town hall ceased to a venue for judicial purposes when crown court hearings moved to a new courthouse in Bricket Road in 1992.

Local government

The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of St Albans City Council during first half of the 20th century. The building also served as the meeting place of St Albans Rural District Council between 1895 and 1929. St Albans City Council moved to a new

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

further north along St Peter's Street in 1966, which was in turn replaced by a new Civic Centre in 1989. Following a programme of conversion works costing £7.75 million carried out to a design by John McAslan and Partners, the St Albans Museum, which had been located in Hatfield Road until it closed in that location in September 2015, re-opened in the town hall in June 2018.

Architecture

The design involves a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the Market Square; the central bay features a

podium A podium (: podiums or podia) is a platform used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podiums can also be used to raise people, for instance the conductor of a ...

on the ground floor containing three

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 ...

s supporting a

tetrastyle 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 cultu ...

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 cu ...

with

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

columns and a large

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and

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 ...

above. Internally, the principal rooms are the assembly hall, which also functions as a ballroom, and the courtroom, which has an

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al shape and is panelled.

References

External links