County Hall, Hertford

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County Hall, Hertford
County Hall, Hertford.jpg
Location Hertford, Hertfordshire
Coordinates 51°47′27″N0°04′53″W / 51.7908°N 0.0813°W / 51.7908; -0.0813
Built1939
Architect Charles Holloway James and Stephen Rowland Pierce
Architectural style(s) Neo-Georgian style with Scandinavian elements
Listed Building – Grade II*
Designated9 September 1996
Reference no.1268807
Hertfordshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location of County Hall, Hertford in Hertfordshire

The County Hall is a municipal building complex in Pegs Lane, Hertford, Hertfordshire. The building, which is the headquarters of Hertfordshire County Council, is a Grade II* listed building. [1]

Contents

History

The original Shire Hall for Hertfordshire was located in Fore Street in Hertford. [2] After deciding that Shire Hall was too restricted for future expansion, county leaders chose to procure a new county headquarters: the site they selected was open land located just off Pegs Lane. [3]

Construction of the new building began in spring 1937. [4] It was designed by Charles Holloway James and Stephen Rowland Pierce in the Neo-Georgian style with Scandinavian elements, [5] built by C. Miskin & Son of St Albans and opened without ceremony in summer 1939. [4] The first full council meeting in the building was held on 6 November 1939, when Queen Elizabeth sent a message of regret that the outbreak of the Second World War had prevented her fulfilling an earlier promise to formally open the building. [6]

The design for the building involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing the Bullocks Lane; the left section of three bays featured a portico with four full height piers supporting a frieze with the words "Tertium iam annum regnante Georgio VI haec curia aedificata est" ("This building was constructed during the third year of the reign of George VI"); the portico contained a doorway flanked by square windows on the ground floor and it contained tall sash windows in a recess on the first floor; there was a copper-clad cupola at roof level; the right section contained a loggia of eleven bays on the ground floor and seven sash windows on the first floor. [1] The principal room was the council chamber which was contained in a curved structure which jutted out of the main building to the west. [7]

The Hertfordshire Local Defence Volunteers was formed at County Hall, to provide a secondary line of defence in case of invasion by the forces of Nazi Germany and other Axis powers during the Second World War, in 1940. [8] The Hertfordshire Film Archive was established at the building in 1978. [9] Sculptures of two deer designed by Stephen Elson were erected outside County Hall, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the building, in 1989. [10]

Works of art in County Hall include a portrait of the Lord Chancellor, John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, by Godfrey Kneller [11] and a portrait of the local member of parliament, William Plumer, by Thomas Lawrence. [12]

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References

  1. 1 2 Historic England. "County Hall Including Terraces and Fountain, Hertford (1268807)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  2. ↑ Historic England. "Shire Hall, Hertford (1268930)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  3. ↑ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1923. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Hertford Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan" (PDF). East Hertfordshire Council. p. 122. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  5. ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner; Bridget Cherry (1977). Hertfordshire. Yale University Press. pp. 186–8. ISBN   978-0-300-09611-8.
  6. ↑ "Herts New County Hall: County Council's First Meeting at New Home - Messages from H.M. the Queen". Herts and Essex Observer. Bishop's Stortford. 11 November 1939. p. 3. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  7. ↑ "Hertfordshire County Hall, Hertford: the council chamber seen from the north-west". Royal Institute of British Architects. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  8. ↑ Robinson 1978, p. 130.
  9. ↑ Foster and Sheppard 2000, p. 249
  10. ↑ Shields, Pamela (2005). Hertfordshire A-Z. The History Press. ISBN   978-0750942508.
  11. ↑ Kneller, Godfrey. "John Baron Sommers of Evesham (1650–1716), Lord Chancellor (1697–1700)". Art UK. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
  12. ↑ Lawrence, Thomas. "William Plumer (1736–1822), of Gilston Park, MP for Hertfordshire (1768–1807)". Art UK. Retrieved 15 October 2020.

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