| County Hall, Durham | |
|---|---|
 Entrance to County Hall | |
  County Hall Location within County Durham | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Brutalist style |
| Address | Aykley Heads, Durham |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 54°47′09″N1°35′06″W / 54.7859°N 1.5850°W |
| Completed | 1963 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Sir Basil Spence |
County Hall is a municipal building at Aykley Heads in Durham, County Durham, England. It is the headquarters of Durham County Council.
In the first half of the 20th century Durham County Council was based at the Shire Hall in Old Elvet, Durham. [1] After deciding the Shire Hall was inadequate for their needs, county leaders chose to procure a new county headquarters: the site selected had previously been open land [2] forming part of the Aykley Heads Estate which centred around an 18th century mansion that had been built and occupied by the Dixon-Johnson family. [3] [4] [5]
Work on the new building began in 1960: it was designed by Sir Basil Spence in the Brutalist style, [6] was built by John Laing & Son [7] at a cost of £2.75 million and was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 14 October 1963. [8] The design for the seven-storey building involved continuous bands of glazing with exposed concrete beams above and below: a large mosaic mural depicting local scenes was designed by Clayton and Gelson and installed on the face of the building. [9] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber; a memorial to county council staff who had died in the First and Second World Wars was recovered from the Shire Hall and installed outside the new council chamber. [10]
In March 2019, the County Council approved a proposal to move to a smaller new-build facility on the Sands car park at Freeman's Place in the centre of Durham. [11] The building works, carried out by Kier Group at a cost of £50 million, were completed in March 2022. [12] [13] [14] Richard Holden, Conservative member of parliament for North-West Durham, described the new council headquarters as a 'vanity project', questioning the suitability of the location as well as tax increases and cuts to services used to pay for the development. [15]
The Labour council leadership that ordered the new building was replaced by a Conservative-led coalition after the 2021 local elections, the decision was made to sell the new building to Durham University for £84 million as a new home for Durham University Business School and instead to build a new civic centre on the existing site in Aykley Heads, [16] a proposal later also rejected. [17]
The county council announced plans in 2019 to move the county archives from County Hall to a new history centre at Mount Oswald. [18]
Works of art in the building included a painting, 30.75 feet (9.37 m) long and 5.66 feet (1.73 m) high, by Norman Cornish, depicting a miners' gala, which was located in the entrance hall. In March 2020, it was relocated to Bishop Auckland Town Hall. [19]
Of around 1,850 staff based at County Hall in 2020, 1,000 were to be based at the new HQ and approximately 850 were to relocate to four council office sites being developed across the county in Crook, Meadowfield, Seaham and Spennymoor. [20]
In 2019 the Council planned to demolish County Hall as part of a masterplan to redevelop the wider site at Aykley Heads as a business park with supporting retail, financial and professional, food and drink, non-residential institutions, and assembly and leisure uses, with associated landscaping, multi-storey and surface car parking. [21] As of 2023, the plans were to redevelop the site as part of an innovation district. [22]
In 2023, it was announced that plans to build a new civic centre on the current site would not go ahead and that the council now planned to buy the nearby Rivergreen building and redevelop it as a new council HQ from 2025. [17] The building was built in 2006 and was the place where Atom Bank was founded. [23] [24]
Durham is a cathedral city and civil parish in the county of Durham, England. It is the county town and contains the headquarters of Durham County Council, the unitary authority which governs the district of County Durham. It had a population of 48,069 at the 2011 Census.
Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England, with Sunderland to the north, Hartlepool to the south, the Durham Coast to the east and Durham to the west. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946. The act also created the nearby settlement of Newton Aycliffe and later Washington, Tyne and Wear.
Derwentside was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district in County Durham, England.
Esh Winning is a village, and location of a former colliery, in County Durham, England. It is situated in the Deerness Valley 5 miles (8 km) to the west of Durham. The village was founded by the Pease family in the 1850s to service a new mine on the Esh Estate.
A county hall or shire hall is a common name given to a building that houses the seat of local government for a county.
Swansea Civic Centre – formerly known as County Hall – is the principal administrative centre of Swansea Council. Standing some 800 m southwest of Swansea city centre, by the seafront and overlooking Swansea Bay, the complex houses – in addition to the council chamber and offices – a public cafe, the central library, an exhibition space, archives service, and contact centre.
The County Hall is a municipal building located beside the disused Bute East Dock in the Atlantic Wharf area of Butetown, Cardiff. Formerly the home of South Glamorgan County Council, it is now the headquarters of Cardiff Council.
Rockliffe Park near Hurworth, County Durham, is Middlesbrough Football Club's training facility and sports complex.
Durham County Council is the local authority which governs the non-metropolitan county of County Durham in North East England. Since 2009 it has been a unitary authority, having taken over district-level functions when the county's districts were abolished. The non-metropolitan county is smaller than the ceremonial county of County Durham, which additionally includes Darlington, Hartlepool and the parts of Stockton-on-Tees north of the River Tees. The county council has its headquarters at County Hall in Durham.
Y Gaer is a municipal structure in Glamorgan Street, Brecon, Powys, Wales. The complex, which includes a museum, an art gallery and a library and incorporates a structure which was once the shire hall for Brecknockshire, is a Grade II* listed building.
Rushford Court is a student hall and former hospital in Durham, England. It opened in 1853 as County Hospital, and closed as a hospital in 2010 after services were moved to Lanchester Road Hospital on the outskirts of the city.
The Post & Echo Building, now occupied by the Meliã Liverpool Hotel, is located at 95 Old Hall Street in Liverpool city centre, England, and formerly housed the headquarters of the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post newspapers. It is also known as Metropolitan House and as City Tower. It is an international style-style building that stands 73 metres (240 ft) tall with 18 storeys, making it the joint-tenth-tallest building in the city.
Darlington Town Hall is a municipal building in Feethams, Darlington, County Durham, England. It is the meeting place of Darlington Borough Council.
Mount Oswald is a manor house in Durham, County Durham, England. The property, which is being developed for academic and residential use, is a Grade II listed building.
The County Hall is a municipal facility at Colliton Park in Dorchester, Dorset, England.
County Buildings is a municipal facility at Martin Street in Stafford, Staffordshire. The building, which is the meeting place for both Staffordshire County Council and Stafford Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building.
Shire Hall is a former municipal building in Castle Hill in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England. It was the headquarters of Cambridgeshire County Council from 1932 until 2021, when the council moved to New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, some 23 miles from Cambridge.
The Old Shire Hall is a former municipal building in Old Elvet, Durham. The building, which was the headquarters of Durham County Council from 1898 to 1963, is a Grade II listed building.
Sandown Town Hall is a municipal building in Grafton Street, Sandown, Isle of Wight, England. The structure, which was the meeting place of Sandown Urban District Council, is a Grade II listed building.
New Shire Hall is a municipal building on Emery Crescent, Alconbury Weald, Cambridgeshire, England, built in 2019–2020. It is the headquarters of Cambridgeshire County Council.
