Stoke-upon-Trent Town Hall is a municipal building in Glebe Street,

Stoke-upon-Trent Stoke-upon-Trent, also known as Stoke, is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton and Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall form the city of Stoke-o ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, England. The town hall, which is the meeting place of

Stoke-on-Trent City Council Stoke-on-Trent City Council is the local authority of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. Since 1997 it has been a unitary authority, a district council which also performs the functions of a county council, independent from Staffordshire C ...

, 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 first town hall in Stoke-upon-Trent was erected in the Market Place between Market Street (now known as Hill Street) and Hide Street in 1794: it had arcading on the ground floor to allow markets to be held and an assembly room was established on the first floor. After significant industrial growth in the early 19th century, particularly associated with the potteries industry, civic leaders decided to procure a larger structure: the site selected was north east of the original structure in the heart of the potteries manufacturing area. The new building was designed by Henry Ward 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 rusticated stone on the ground floor and

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 above and was completed in 1834. The design originally involved a symmetrical main frontage with just three bays facing onto the Glebe Street; it featured a large

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 three archways on the ground floor beneath four

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 supporting an

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 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 ...

. It was extended with a north wing for use by the police in 1842 and a south wing for use by the courts in around 1850. The outer bays in each of the two wings were slightly projected forward, enhanced with Ionic order

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 on the first floor and pedimented as

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s. Internally, the principal room was a market hall in the centre of the building, but the ground floor was remodelled in 1888 to convert the market hall into a public hall and to create a council chamber, a mayor's parlour and some municipal offices. Assembly rooms known as the King's Hall and the Jubilee Hall were constructed to a design by Thomas Wallis and James Albert Bowden behind the main structure in 1911. The town hall became the headquarters of the new county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910 and

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. George was born during the reign of his pa ...

and Queen Mary visited the town hall and announced the town's advancement to city status on 5 June 1925. The

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band,

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

, performed at a concert in the King's Hall on 26 January 1963. The building remained the local seat of government after the formation of the enlarged

in 1974. The new city council inherited additional facilities at Unity House in

Hanley Hanley is one of the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent, six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke- ...

which had been completed in 1973, but as part of an initiative to co-locate its staff, the city council vacated Unity House and constructed a civic centre to the immediate north of the town hall in 1992. In 2012 the city council announced its intention to relocate some of its staff back to Hanley but into a newly built facility there. After a programme of refurbishment works costing £1.5 million was completed in 2018, the register office moved from

Hanley Town Hall Hanley Town Hall is a municipal building in Albion Square in Hanley, Staffordshire, England. The building, which is used as the local register office, is a Grade II listed building. History The first town hall in Hanley was erected in Town Road ...

into the newly-refurbished building in October 2020.

Notes

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1834 City and town halls in Staffordshire Buildings and structures in Stoke-on-Trent Grade II listed buildings in Staffordshire