Letchworth Town Hall

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Letchworth Town Hall
Letchworth Town Hall.jpg
Letchworth Town Hall
Location Broadway, Letchworth
Coordinates 51°58′38″N0°13′47″W / 51.9773°N 0.2296°W / 51.9773; -0.2296
Built1935
ArchitectRobert Bennett and Wilson Bidwell
Architectural style(s) Neo-Georgian style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameTown Hall
Designated16 December 2009
Reference no.1393610
Hertfordshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Shown in Hertfordshire

Letchworth Town Hall is a municipal building in Broadway, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Letchworth Urban District Council, is a Grade II listed building. [1]

History

Letchworth was developed in the early 20th century based on the ideas of the social reformer, Ebenezer Howard, and the master-planners, Richard Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, around a boulevard known as Broadway, which formed the diagonal southwest-northeast axis of the proposed garden city. [2] After significant population growth, in part associated with arrival of the Spirella Corset Company in the town, the area became an urban district in 1919. [3] In this context civic leaders decided to procure a town hall: the site they selected was open land on the east side of Broadway. [4] At the same time they established Broadway Gardens, which was initially known as the Town Square. [5]

The new building was designed by Robert Bennett and Wilson Bidwell in the Neo-Georgian style, built in red brick with stone dressings and completed in 1935. [1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with eleven bays facing the northeast corner of the Town Square with the wing sections slightly projected forward; the central section of five bays, featured a doorway with a fanlight flanked by Corinthian order pilasters supporting an open pediment on with a cartouche in the tympanum. [1] The wing sections featured prominent round headed windows with cast iron balconies on the first floor. [1] There were sash windows on the first and second floors and, at roof level, there was a clock tower with a cupola and a weather vane. [1] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber, which was panelled, on the second floor. [1] An electro-mechanical clock was installed in the tower to commemorate the life of Councillor Charles Francis Ball, [1] who had died in June 1933, and in whose memory the Ball Memorial Gardens were also established to the east of Norton Way South in 1936. [6] The building was initially called the "Council House", but was renamed the "Town Hall" in 1960. [7]

The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Letchworth Urban District Council until 1974 when that council was abolished on the formation of North Hertfordshire District Council, which, shortly after its creation, established its headquarters in a new office building nearby on Gernon Road. [8] [9] Letchworth Town Hall continued to be used as additional office space for the new council until 2007, when it fell vacant. [10]

After an extensive programme of restoration works to a design by Scott Brownrigg, [11] the building was re-opened as an administrative centre for North Hertfordshire College in 2013. [12] The clock in the clock tower, which by then had become one of the few remaining electro-mechanical clocks not to be replaced by an electrically motorised device, was restored in summer 2017. [13] [14]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Historic England. "Town Hall (1393610)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  2. ↑ Lucey, Norman (1973). "The Effect of Sir Ebenezer Howard and the Garden City Movement on Twentieth Century Town Planning". Hertfordshire.
  3. ↑ "Letchworth UD". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  4. ↑ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1922. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  5. ↑ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1938. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  6. ↑ "Ball Memorial Gardens". National Education Network. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  7. ↑ Johnson, Kenneth (1976). The Book of Letchworth. Chesham: Barracuda Books. p. 109. ISBN   0860230163.
  8. ↑ Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN   0-10-547072-4.
  9. ↑ "North Hertfordshire District Council". Echo News. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  10. ↑ "North Hertfordshire College interest in Letchworth Town Hall". The Comet. 17 November 2011. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  11. ↑ "North Hertfordshire College, Letchworth Town Hall Regeneration Project". Elementa. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  12. ↑ "Annual Review" (PDF). North Hertfordshire District Council. 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  13. ↑ "Letchworth: The World's first "timeless" city". The Comet. 12 December 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  14. ↑ "Letchworth Town Hall clock back on time after restoration work". The Comet. 28 June 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
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