Hall for Cornwall

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Hall for Cornwall
Truro City Hall Municipal Buildings (geograph 4669583).jpg
The Boscawen Street entrance to the complex
LocationBoscawen Street, Truro
Coordinates 50°15′46″N5°03′03″W / 50.2629°N 5.0507°W / 50.2629; -5.0507
Built1846
ArchitectChristopher Eales
Architectural style(s) Italianate style
Website www.hallforcornwall.co.uk
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameThe City Hall
Designated8 January 1971
Reference no.1201442
Cornwall UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Shown in Cornwall

The Hall for Cornwall, known as Truro City Hall until 1997, is an events venue in Boscawen Street in Truro, Cornwall, England. The building, which was previously the headquarters of Truro City Council, is a Grade II* listed building. [1]

Contents

History

The rear entrance to the complex, which until 2018 was the main access to the auditorium HallforCornwall.jpg
The rear entrance to the complex, which until 2018 was the main access to the auditorium

The first municipal building in Truro was a 17th-century market house, which was arcaded on the ground floor so that markets could be held, with an assembly hall on the first floor. [2] It was replaced with a more substantial structure in 1809 but when that was also found to be inadequate, civic leaders commissioned a new building on the same site in the early 1840s. [2]

The new building was designed by Christopher Eales in the Italianate style, built in granite ashlar stone and completed in 1846. [1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Boscawen Street; the ground floor was arcaded and rusticated, while the first floor had sash windows with triangular pediments on the central and outer windows and with segmental pediments on the other windows. [1] There were quoins at the corners and at roof level there was a heavily modillioned cornice. [1] Internally, the north end of the complex accommodated the municipal buildings, which included a courtroom and a council chamber, while the south end accommodated a market hall. [1] A clock, manufactured by J. Moore & Sons of Clerkenwell, was provided in 1854 (the gift of J. L. Damper Esq.). [3] A clocktower was installed on the Boscawen Street frontage in 1858. [4]

The suffragette, Helen Beedy, gave a speech advocating voting rights for women at a public meeting in the building in December 1874. [5] In 1877, when Truro became a city, the complex was renamed Truro City Hall. [4] In the early 20th century civic leaders decided to make the market hall at the rear of the complex available for public use. [6] This resulted in the market hall being operated as a skating rink in 1907 and then as a cinema in 1912. [6] In 1914 the clock tower caught fire; it spread through the roof and gutted much of the building. After the building was restored a new clock and chimes were provided by an anonymous donor; [7] the new clock was by Smith of Derby, [8] and the four bells by Taylor of Loughborough. After the fire, the market hall was remodelled as a theatre with a stage in 1925 and, following a period of neglect in the 1960s, it served as a flea market in the 1970s. [6] The rock band, Queen, played their first live concert in the building on 27 June 1970. [9]

The municipal buildings continued to serve as the headquarters of Truro City Council for much of the 20th century, [10] but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged Carrick District Council was formed at offices in Pydar Street in 1974. [11]

After a major refurbishment in the mid-1990s, the former market hall at the rear of the complex re-opened as Hall for Cornwall on 15 November 1997. [6] [12] In September 2008 the venue put on a re-working of the play, The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe, entitled Barabas, which featured a Cornish, national and international cast. [13] The venue then became one of a number of organisations involved in Cornwall Council's proposed National Theatre of Cornwall, when the initiative was launched in February 2012. [14] Christmas shows, directed by locally based director and producer, Simon Harvey, included Dick Whittington and his Mousehole Cat! in December 2016 and Jack and the Beanstalk - A gigantic adventure! in December 2017. [15]

A major programme of refurbishment works, undertaken by Kier Group at a cost of £20 million to a design by Burrell Foley Fischer, began in June 2018. [16] The project involved a completely new auditorium, located in the centre of the complex, increasing the capacity of the venue from 965 seats to 1,354 seats: it is accessed from the north end of the complex, i.e. Boscawen Street, whereas the old auditorium was accessed from the south end of the complex, i.e. Back Quay. [17] Although the venue continues to be called Hall for Cornwall, the new auditorium is known as The Cornwall Playhouse and opened in 2021. [18]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Historic England. "The City Hall (1201442)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Truro Conservation Area Appraisal" (PDF). Cornwall Council. 1 March 2010. p. 16. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  3. ↑ Pickford, Chris, ed. (1995). Turret Clocks: Lists of Clocks from Makers' Catalogues and Publicity Materials (2nd ed.). Wadhurst, E. Sussex: Antiquarian Horological Society. p. 34.
  4. 1 2 "Timeline". Hall for Cornwall. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  5. ↑ Crawford, Elizabeth (2013). The Women's Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: A Regional Survey. Taylor and Francis. p. 149. ISBN   978-1136010620.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Hall For Cornwall". Theatres Trust. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  7. ↑ "Work to restore Truro clock tower set to begin". BBC News. 9 June 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  8. ↑ "Keeping Truro's Clock Ticking". Hall for Cornwall. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  9. ↑ "Queen played their first concert in Cornwall 48 years ago tonight changing rock history forever". Cornwall Live. 27 June 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  10. ↑ "No. 45923". The London Gazette . 6 March 1973. p. 3020.
  11. ↑ Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN   0-10-547072-4.
  12. ↑ "Hall rescue a culture shock for Cornwall". The Guardian. 14 March 2000. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  13. ↑ "Barabas". The Guardian. 30 September 2008. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  14. ↑ "National Theatre hope highlighted by report". The Cornishman. 2 February 2012. Archived from the original on 12 July 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  15. ↑ Cooper, H. "Jack and the Beanstalk – a gigantic adventure!". Cornwall Life. Archived from the original on 14 July 2017. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
  16. ↑ Trewhela, Lee (13 February 2018). "This is when Hall For Cornwall closes for two years to build world-class theatre". cornwalllive. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  17. ↑ "Hall For Cornwall will reopen after it gets £2m government cash". 11 December 2020. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  18. ↑ "Hall For Cornwall announces new theatre auditorium name Cornwall Playhouse on St Piran's Day". Cornwall Live. 5 March 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
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