Old Town Hall, Seaford

Old Town Hall
Old Town Hall
Location	South Street, Seaford
Coordinates	50°46′15″N0°06′05″E / 50.7708°N 0.1013°E / 50.7708; 0.1013
Built	c.1562
Architectural style(s)	Vernacular style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	The Old Town Hall
Designated	15 November 1976
Reference no.	1252581
Shown in East Sussex

The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in South Street in Seaford, East Sussex, England. The structure, which is now in commercial use, is a Grade II listed building. ^[1]

History

The first municipal building in Seaford was an ancient town hall in Church Street with a vaulted crypt dating back to the 13th century; it was later demolished but the crypt survived, and the site was subsequently occupied by a building known as "The Folly". ^{[2] [3]}

The current building in South Street was designed in the vernacular style, built in brick with a rendered finish and, in its original form, dated back to around 1562. ^{[4] [5]} The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto South Street. The central bay was fenestrated with windows for prison cells on the ground floor. There was also an external staircase leading up to a doorway on the first floor in the right-hand bay. ^[6] Internally, the principal rooms included a lock-up for the incarceration of petty criminals on the ground floor, ^[7] and a council chamber, which was also the meeting place of the local masonic lodge, on the first floor. ^{[8] [9]}

The town hall, which was remodelled in the 18th century, was the venue a riot when the reformer, Thomas Oldfield, arrived to give a lecture there in 1789. ^[10] Seaford had a very small electorate and a dominant patron, Charles Ellis, 1st Baron Seaford of Claremont, which meant it was recognised by the UK Parliament as a rotten borough. ^[11] Its right to elect members of parliament was removed by the Reform Act 1832, ^[12] and its borough council, which had met in the council chamber, was abolished under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883. ^[13] Although the town became an urban district in 1894, ^[14] the new civic leaders decided that the town hall was too small and chose to base themselves in new council offices in Clinton Place. ^[15]

The building subsequently served as a fire station until a new fire station could be completed on the corner of West Street and Green Lane. ^[16] After serving as a base for the Home Guard during the Second World War, the building became a community tea room in the 1990s. ^{[17] [18]}

References

1. Historic England. "The Old Town Hall (1252581)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 19 August 2023.
2. The Art Journal London 1895. J. S. Virtue and Company. p. 333.
3. "The medieval undercroft in the Crypt Gallery". The Crypt Gallery. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
4. "The Old Town Hall Community Tea Room". Seaford Scene. 1 August 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
5. "Other Seaford Memorials". Seaford Monumental Inscriptions Group. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
6. The Sussex County Magazine. Vol. 11. p. 618. Seaford, too, had a charter of incorporation from 1544 down to 1866; its old town hall, with an outside staircase, afterwards came into the occupation of the local fire brigade.
7. "Seaford Gaol". Prison History. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
8. Return of the Number of Friendly Societies in Great Britain. House of Commons. 26 January 1832. p. 26.
9. Sussex archaeological collections, illustrating the history and antiquities of the county. Vol. 7. Sussex Archaeological Society. 1854. p. 90.
10. "History of Seaford". Seaford Museum. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
11. "Parliamentary Reform Bill, For England". Hansard. 30 May 1832. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
12. "The History of Politics: The Rotten Boroughs of England". Julia Herdman Books. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
13. Municipal Corporations Act 1883 (46 & 46 Vict. Ch. 18) (PDF). 1883. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
14. "Seaford UD". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
15. Gordon, Kevin (2010). Seaford Through Time. Amberley Publishing. ISBN   978-1445630762.
16. "Old Fire Station, Seaford". Fire Stations.org. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
17. "Old Town Hall Community Tea Room". Hey Cafes. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
18. "Clash over future of old hall". Sussex Express. 21 March 2002. Retrieved 19 August 2023.