St Annes's Public Offices is a municipal building in Clifton Drive,

St Anne's-on-the-Sea Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population of the built-up area at the 2021 United Kingdom census, ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. The building, which was the headquarters of St Anne's-on-the-Sea Urban District Council, is Grade II listed.

History

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 rapidly developing town of St Anne's-on-the-Sea in 1878. Following significant population growth, largely associated with seaside tourism, the town became an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

in 1894. In this context civic leaders decided to procure new public offices: the site they chose formed part of the garden of an adjacent residential property. The new building was designed by Thomas Muirhead in the Victorian style, built in red brick with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone dressings and was officially opened by Councillor Louis Stott on 22 January 1902. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Clifton Drive; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a doorway with a wide arched stone surround flanked by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

supporting a flat

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

. There were stone panels above the doorway inscribed with the words "Public Offices" and the date of construction (1900). On the first floor there were three

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

s with curved centre lights flanked by banded

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 were

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 in the other bays on both floors. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber on the first floor. The building was extended to the rear to create extra accommodation for council officers and their departments in 1907. It continued to serve as the headquarters of St Anne's-on-the-Sea Urban District Council until it merged with Lytham Urban District Council to form the Municipal Borough of Lytham St Annes in 1922. Lytham Urban District Council did not have a permanent headquarters at that time and so the new civic leaders decided to acquire the Southdown Hydro Hotel which was conveniently located on the South Promenade just to the rear of the public offices. The old public offices were then relegated to the role of annex to the new

Lytham St Annes Town Hall Lytham St Annes Town Hall is a municipal building on the South Promenade in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England. The structure, which is used as the headquarters of Fylde Borough Council, is a locally listed building. History The building was ...

, which itself became the local seat of government for the enlarged Fylde District Council in 1974. In December 2011, Fylde District Council decided that the old public offices were surplus to requirements and proceeded to market the building for sale. In March 2012, St Annes-on-the-Sea Town Council submitted a proposal, which ultimately did not proceed, to acquire the building and convert it into a heritage centre. A blue plaque, recording the history of the old public offices, was paid for by St Annes-on-the-Sea Town Council and unveiled by Stott's grandson, Richard Stanley, on the front of the building in January 2016. The public offices were taken over by Fylde Foodbank in November 2017 but were then vacated in January 2019 as Fylde Borough Council wanted to resume marketing the building for sale.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1902 City and town halls in Lancashire St Annes on the Sea Grade II listed buildings in Lancashire

History

See also

References