Darlaston Town Hall

Last updated

Darlaston Town Hall is a municipal building in Darlaston, a town in the West Midlands of England.

Darlaston Local Board of Health decided in 1881 to construct a town hall, and selected the site of a disused workhouse on Pardoes Lane. [1] A building was designed by Jethro Cossins. [2] Construction began in 1887, and the building opened in 1888. However, further money had to be raised to complete the work. The final stage of the building, a public library, opened in 1891. [1]

In 1895, the Local Board was succeeded by Darlaston Urban District Council, which used the town hall for its meetings. In 1965, the district became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, which used the building to house its social services department, while also making the main hall available for community events. [1] In 2012, a £500,000 restoration of the hall was proposed, but did not go ahead. In 2017, the council leased the building to Darlaston All Active. [3]

The two-storey building is in the Queen Anne style, in brick, with stone dressings. There are gabled pavilions at each end of the main hall. [1]

The pipe organ

By 1903 the public hall was adorned with a fine new pipe organ, a gift to the town from the widow of James Slater, an ex-chairman of the Local Board, in his memory. The instrument was built by the West Yorkshire firm of J. J. Binns and was fully reported in the Musical Times. [4] The organ is still in use. [5] In June 2018 the Darlaston Town Hall pipe organ was recognised of outstanding national importance by the British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS) – the UK's amenity society for pipe organs – and is listed as Grade 1 in the UK Historic Organs Scheme for being: an unaltered example of a town hall organ of 1903 by J. J. Binns and from the firm’s finest period. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church House, Westminster</span>

The Church House is the home of the headquarters of the Church of England, occupying the south end of Dean's Yard next to Westminster Abbey in London. Besides providing administrative offices for the Church Commissioners, the Archbishops' Council and the Church of England Pensions Board, and a chamber for the General Synod, the building also provided a meeting place for the Parliament of the United Kingdom during World War II, and for some of the organs of the newly formed United Nations afterwards, including the first meeting of the UN Security Council. It has more recently been the venue for several notable public inquiries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darlaston</span> Town in West Midlands, England

Darlaston is an industrial town in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall in the West Midlands of England. It is located near Wednesbury and Willenhall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Municipal Auditorium (Kansas City, Missouri)</span> Multi-purpose hall in Kansas City, Missouri

Municipal Auditorium is a multi-purpose facility located in Kansas City, Missouri. It opened in 1935 and features Streamline Moderne and Art Deco architecture and architectural details.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Willis & Sons</span> British pipe organ building company

Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perth Concert Hall (Western Australia)</span> Concert hall in Perth, Western Australia

The Perth Concert Hall is a concert hall located in Perth, the capital of the Australian state of Western Australia. Owned by the City of Perth, the hall is the main venue of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and also hosts a number of other events and performances. The building itself is located in Perth's central business district, adjacent to the Supreme Court Gardens and Government House. The building has two façades: facing north over St Georges Terrace, and facing south over the Swan River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary Moorfields</span> Church in City of London, England

St Mary Moorfields is a Roman Catholic church in Eldon Street near Moorgate, on a site previously known as Moorfields. It is the only Catholic church in the City of London. Prior to a 1994 boundary change, the church was in the Borough of Hackney, such that there were no Catholic churches in the City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burley, Leeds</span> Area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Burley is an inner city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, 1 mile (1.6 km) north-west of Leeds city centre, between the A65 Kirkstall Road at the south and Headingley at the north, in the Kirkstall ward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Bromwich Town Hall</span> Municipal building in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England

West Bromwich Town Hall is a municipal building in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. It is a Grade II listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd</span> British organ builders

J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd is a British firm of organ builders established in 1828 by Joseph William Walker in London. Walker organs were popular additions to churches during the Gothic Revival era of church building and restoration in Victorian Britain, and instruments built by Walker are found in many churches around the UK and in other countries. The firm continues to build organs today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Elphin's Church, Warrington</span> Church in Cheshire, England

St Elphin's Church is the parish church of the town of Warrington, Cheshire, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Liverpool, the archdeaconry of Warrington and the deanery of Warrington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Hall, Nottingham</span> Concert hall in England

The Albert Hall is a conference and concert venue situated close to the centre of the city of Nottingham in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All Saints Notting Hill</span> Church in Notting Hill, United Kingdom

All Saints Notting Hill is a Church of England parish church in Talbot Road, Notting Hill, London that is affiliated to the Anglo-Catholic Forward in Faith movement. The church is built in a Victorian Gothic Revival style with striking polychromatic decoration. For heritage purposes the church is a Grade II* listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Jepson Binns</span> British organ builder (c.1855–1928)

James Jepson Binns was a pipe organ builder based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walsall Town Hall</span> Municipal building in Walsall, West Midlands, England

Walsall Town Hall is located at Leicester Street in Walsall, West Midlands, England. The building, which opened in 1903, is used for a variety of functions including wedding receptions and concerts. It was designated a grade II listed building in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannesburg City Hall</span> Building in Johannesburg, South Africa

Johannesburg City Hall is an Edwardian building constructed in 1914 by the Hawkey and McKinley construction company. The plan for the building was drawn in 1910 and construction was started in 1913 and finished in 1914. The Gauteng Provincial Legislature currently occupies the building. The City Hall has seen many political events on its steps from protest meetings to a bomb blast in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinners Organ Company</span> Reed and pipe organ manufacturing company

Hinners Organ Company was an American manufacturer of reed and pipe organs located in Pekin, Illinois. Established in 1879 by German-American John Hinners, the firm grew through several partners, becoming Hinners & Fink in 1881, Hinners & Albertsen in 1886, and Hinners Organ Company in 1902. In the 1920s Hinners established a subsidiary, the Illinois Organ Supply Company, which mass-produced parts for Hinners and other firms. Business declined in the 1930s due to the Great Depression, changing technology, and increasing competition. Hinners became a service company in 1936 and closed in 1942.

The Warrington Cavaillé-Coll Organ is housed in Parr Hall in Warrington (UK). It is one of the few surviving pipe organs in the UK that were built by the French organ builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811–99).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battersea Town Hall</span> Municipal building in London, England

Battersea Town Hall, originally the New Parochial Offices, Battersea, is a Grade II* listed municipal building in Battersea, south London, designed by Edward Mountford and erected between 1891 and 1893 by the Battersea vestry to provide public halls and office space for its staff. The building served for 72 years as the hub of municipal Battersea until the centre of local government was moved to neighbouring Wandsworth in 1965, after which it transitioned to use as a community and arts centre, latterly known as the Battersea Arts Centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Hartlepool Town Hall</span> Municipal building in West Hartlepool, County Durham, England

West Hartlepool Town Hall is an events venue in Raby Road, Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It is a Grade II listed building.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Parker, Bev. "Darlaston Town Hall". Wolverhampton History & Heritage. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  2. ↑ Black, Alistair; Pepper, Simon; Bagshaw, Kaye (2017). Books, Buildings and Social Engineering. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   9781317173281.
  3. ↑ Harris, Jordan (2 September 2017). "Darlaston Town Hall rescue bid is withdrawn". Express & Star. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  4. ↑ ‘A report of the new organ’ [at Darlaston], in The Musical Times, 1 December 1903. Wikimedia Commons source, accessed 10 April 2019
  5. ↑ 'A New Town Hall' in A Brief History of Darlaston by Bev Parker (no date); online resource accessed 1 July 2018
  6. ↑ "Staffordshire Darlaston, Town Hall, Victoria Road [N04970]", National Pipe Organ Register , British Institute of Organ Studies ; online resource accessed 1 July 2018
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.