Tunbridge Wells Town Hall is a municipal building in Mount Pleasant Road,

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells (formerly, until 1909, and still commonly Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent, England, southeast of Central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sand ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, England. The town hall, which is the headquarters of

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Tunbridge may refer to the following places: * Tunbridge, Illinois, United States * Tunbridge, North Dakota, see Locations in the United States with an English name#North Dakota * Tunbridge, Tasmania, Australia * Tunbridge, Vermont, United Stat ...

, 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 was a market hall designed by

Decimus Burton Decimus Burton (30 September 1800 – 14 December 1881) was one of the foremost English architects and landscapers of the 19th century. He was the foremost Victorian architect in the Roman revival, Greek revival, Georgian neoclassical and Reg ...

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 ...

and built as part of John Ward's Calverley Park estate in 1829. After the market hall proved to be a commercial failure, the building was acquired by the newly-appointed town commissioners and converted for municipal use in 1841. Following population growth in the late 19th century, largely associated with the town's development as a residential area, Tunbridge Wells became a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

in 1888. The new corporation acquired a large site to the east of Mount Pleasant Road for the purposes of the development of a civic complex in 1895. The first development was a Technical and Art School (now the Adult Education Centre) which was completed in 1902. A war memorial, which was designed by Stanley Nicholson Babb, was unveiled by Colonel Henry Charles Hardinge, 3rd Viscount Hardinge on 11 February 1923. Following a design competition assessed by

Ernest Berry Webber Ernest Berry Webber, (29 April 1896 – 19 December 1963)''England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1995'', p. 130. was an English architect, surveyor and town planner best known for his desig ...

, a team consisting of Sir Percy Thomas and

Ernest Prestwich Ernest Prestwich (29 August 1889 – 4 November 1977) was an English architect, working his own interpretation of Classical architecture, via the Streamline Moderne, Style Moderne, Modernism, Modernist and Brutalism, Brutalist styles. He speci ...

was chosen as the architect for the main scheme in November 1934. Construction work began with the demolition of the properties in Calverley Place. The foundation stone for the new complex was laid by the mayor, Councillor Charles Hillman, on 18 May 1938. The new buildings were designed in the Neo-Georgian style and built in red brick with

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...

dressings: the police station and the assembly hall were officially opened by the Marchioness Camden (whose husband was the

Lord Lieutenant of Kent This is a list of people who have served as Lord-Lieutenant of Kent. Since 1746, all Lords Lieutenant have also been Custos Rotulorum of Kent. Lords Lieutenant of Kent * Sir Thomas Cheney 1551 – 1558 * William Brooke, 10th Baron Cobham 3 July ...

) in 1939 and the town hall itself was officially opened by the mayor, Alderman Charles Westbrook, in 1941. A library and museum building was added to the north of the town hall in 1952. The design for the town hall involved a symmetrical corner section of three bays at the junction of Mount Pleasant Road and Crescent Road. The corner section featured a doorway with a stone surround at the base of a tall round-headed recessed window flanked by full-height brick

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 supporting an

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

bearing the borough

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

. A western wing extended for twelve bays along Mount Pleasant Road while the southern wing extended for seven bays along Crescent Road. The design for the Assembly Hall Theatre, built to the east of the town hall, involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Crescent Road with the central section of three bays slightly projected forward. It featured five doorways with a canopy above the central three doorways; above the canopy were three tall windows with carved stone reliefs in the heads of the windows: the reliefs depicted dance, drama and music and were sculpted by Gilbert Seale and Sons of

Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...

. The police station and magistrates court, built to the east of the assembly hall, featured an arched doorway with a relief depicting the administration of justice in the tympanum. Internally, the principal rooms in the complex were the council chamber and the mayor's parlour in the town hall and the main auditorium in the assembly hall. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Tunbridge Wells Corporation for much of the 20th century and remained the local seat of government when the enlarged

was formed in 1974. In 1986

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. She was the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth II. ...

visited the attendance hall to see a performance of the musical ''

Calamity Jane Martha Jane Canary (May 1, 1856 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American American frontier, frontierswoman, Exhibition shooting, sharpshooter, sex worker, and storyteller. In addition to many exploits, she was known f ...

'', which was held to raise funds for new medical equipment for the

Kent and Sussex Hospital The Kent and Sussex Hospital was a district general hospital located on Mount Ephraim in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England serving the West Kent and East Sussex areas. It was managed by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust until it clos ...

. A proposal to build new council offices as well as a new 1,200-seat theatre in Calverley Grounds, leaving the existing town hall complex redundant, was abandoned following a change in political leadership in September 2019. In February 2023, the council announced plans to refurbish the building and to rent out approximately two thirds of it to its partner, Town Square Spaces, who would make it available for commercial use by local businesses.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1941 City and town halls in Kent Buildings and structures in Royal Tunbridge Wells Grade II listed buildings in Kent