Tynemouth Town Hall, also known as North Shields Town Hall, is a municipal building in Howard Street,

North Shields North Shields ( ) is a town in the borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. The population of North Shields at the 2021–2022 United Kingdom cens ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...

, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Tynemouth County Borough Council, 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

Following their appointment in 1828, the new town commissioners for North Shields decided to commission municipal offices: this became possible because of a gift from a solicitor and bank agent, Joseph Laing, who was an enthusiastic supporter of the town. The site they selected was to the immediate north-west to the old Poor Law Guardians' Office on the corner of Howard Street and Saville Street. The new building was designed by John Dobson in the Tudor style and opened as the North Shields Municipal Offices in 1845. The design involved a main frontage of four bays facing onto Howard Street; the second bay from the left, which slightly projected forward, featured an arched doorway on the left and a

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed window on the right on the ground floor; there was a tall pointed and mullioned window on the first floor and a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

and

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

above. The other bays incorporated mullioned windows on both the ground floor and the first floor and the roof line was castellated. At the back of the building a wing extended to the south east creating a frontage on Saville Street. A bust of Joseph Laing was commissioned by his friends after his death in June 1847 and installed in the building. The facilities inside the building included a courtroom, a police station and cells for five prisoners. After significant population growth, largely associated with the tourism and fishing industries, North Shields was absorbed into the new

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 ...

of Tynemouth in 1849. The new council chose to adopt the building in North Shields as its town hall. The area was advanced to the status of county borough in 1904. A portrait of the first member of parliament for Tynemouth and North Shields, George Frederick Young, who had been elected in 1832, was donated to the town by Joseph Laing's family and installed in the town hall in 1906. As the responsibilities of the council increased the building became increasingly cramped; the council acquired both the Methodist Church to the north west of the town hall, which had been designed by John and Benjamin Green and completed in 1857, and the old Poor Law Guardians' Office to the south east, which had been designed by John and Benjamin Green and completed in 1837. Some council departments including the town clerk's office moved out to 14 Northumberland Square in North Shields after 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 ...

. The building continued to serve as the offices of the Borough Treasurer but ceased to function in any municipal capacity after the enlarged

North Tyneside Council North Tyneside Council, or North Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council, is the Local Government in England, local authority for the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provid ...

was formed in 1974. The former Poor Law Guardians' Office, which had served for a while as an electricity showroom, became the offices of a firm of estate agents in the early 21st century, while another part of the complex was converted for use as a community theatre known as "The Exchange" in January 2016.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1845 City and town halls in Tyne and Wear North Shields Grade II listed buildings in Tyne and Wear