Old Town Hall, Devizes

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Old Town Hall
The Old Town Hall, Devizes.jpg
The building in 2020
LocationWine Street, Devizes
Coordinates 51°21′06″N1°59′42″W / 51.3518°N 1.9951°W / 51.3518; -1.9951
Built1752
ArchitectMr. Lawrence
Architectural style(s) Neoclassical style
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameThe Old Town Hall
Designated8 April 1954
Reference no.1252446
Wiltshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Shown in Wiltshire

The Old Town Hall is a historic building in Wine Street in Devizes, a town in Wiltshire, in England. The structure, which is used as a ladies' fashion shop, is a Grade II* listed building. [1]

Contents

History

The building was commissioned as a cheese hall for the town. The site selected was on the corner of Wine Street and St John's Street, just to the south of the old market cross. [2] Work on the building started in 1750. It was designed by an architect named Lawrence in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1752. [3] [4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with four bays facing onto Wine Street; on the ground floor, which was rusticated, there were four round-headed openings. These were originally open, but by the mid-19th century had been filled in with windows and doors. On the first floor, there were four sash windows flanked by Ionic order columns, as well as two corner piers supporting an entablature and a pediment with a clock flanked by carved figures of Cupid in the tympanum. [1]

The building was largely used as a market hall, with the ground floor hosting the town's cheese market. Between 1785 and 1787 the room on the first floor served as an arsenal for the Royal Wiltshire Militia, while at other times it served as the mess hall of the Devizes Loyal Volunteers, and also as a Sunday school. While the current Devizes Town Hall was under construction, between 1806 and 1808, the room on the first floor was briefly used as a venue for council meetings. [1] It was then let out for commercial use in 1809 and sold in 1825. [5]

In 1836, the building was acquired a firm of wine merchants, Messrs Cunningham, which used the basement and the vaults below for storage of wines and spirits. From 1848, the room on the first floor served as the museum, library and reading rooms of the town's literary and scientific institution. [6] The building still accommodated the expanded firm of wine merchants, Cunningham, Williams & Sons, until the mid-20th century. [7] [8] The building was grade II* listed in 1954. [1]

For much of the second half of the 20th century, the ground floor of the building was occupied by a branch of Cheltenham & Gloucester; [9] [10] it was then re-branded as a branch of TSB Bank in 2013. [11] After TSB Bank closed its branch in Wine Street in April 2021, [12] the ground floor became the home of a ladies' fashion shop, Hen House, in autumn 2022. [13] Meanwhile, the first floor served as the auction rooms of Henry Aldridge and Son, before becoming the Wine Street Gallery in the mid-1990s: the gallery continued to display the work of local artists until April 2009. [14]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Historic England. "The Old Town Hall (1252446)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  2. ↑ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1900. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  3. ↑ Durman, Richard (2000). Classical Buildings of Wiltshire and Bath: A Palladian Quest. Millstream. p. 111. ISBN   978-0948975608.
  4. ↑ Borsay, Peter (1989). The English Urban Renaissance: Culture and Society in the Provincial Town, 1660–1770. Clarendon Press. p. 326. ISBN   978-0198200024.
  5. ↑ Baggs, A. P.; Crowley, D. A.; Pugh, Ralph B.; Stevenson, Janet H.; Tomlinson, Margaret (1975). "'The borough of Devizes: Trade, agriculture and local government', in A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 10, ed. Elizabeth Crittall". London: British History Online. pp. 252–285. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  6. ↑ Bull, Henry (1859). A history military and municipal of the ancient borough of Devizes. Longman Brown & Co.
  7. ↑ "Kelly's Directory of Wiltshire". 1915. p. 97.
  8. ↑ "The Records of William Cunnington and Son, Wine Merchants". National Archives. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  9. ↑ "General view of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society at number 1 Wine Street, from the north-west". Historic England. 30 September 1988. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  10. ↑ "Men charged after armed raids". Wiltshire Times. 31 January 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  11. ↑ "Lloyds faces internet issues on TSB launch day". BBC News. 9 September 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  12. ↑ "Decision to close Devizes bank 'not taken lightly'". Gazette and Herald. 28 March 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  13. ↑ "About us". Hen House Gallery. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  14. ↑ "Devizes gallery returning after long absence". Gazette and Herald. 10 August 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
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