| Portslade Town Hall | |
|---|---|
 Portslade Town Hall | |
| Location | Victoria Road, Portslade |
| Coordinates | 50°50′11″N0°12′41″W / 50.8364°N 0.2115°W |
| Built | 1928 |
| Architect | Gilbert Murray Simpson |
| Architectural style(s) | Neo-Georgian style |
  Shown in East Sussex | |
Portslade Town Hall is a municipal building in Victoria Road in Portslade, East Sussex, England. The structure, which was the meeting place of Portslade Urban District Council Council, is a locally-listed building. [1]
Following significant population growth, largely associated with the seaside tourism industry, the area became an urban district in 1898. [2] The new council initially operated from offices in Station Road. [3]
Meanwhile, Ronuk Limited, a polish manufacturing company founded by Horace Fowler in Sheffield, opened a new factory in Portslade in 1902. [4] After high demand for the product led to expansion of the business, the directors decided to procure a social club for the workforce to be known as the Ronuk Hall and Welfare Institute. [5] The foundation stone for the new social club was laid by Marion Elizabeth Chignell, whose father had been a director of the company, on 28 July 1927. [6]
The social club was designed by Gilbert Murray Simpson in the Neo-Georgian style, built in red brick with stone dressings and completed in 1928. [7] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with thirteen bays facing onto Victoria Road, with the end bays projected forward as pavilions. The central section of three bays, which also slightly projected forward, featured a doorway flanked by Doric order pilasters supporting an entablature. There was a tall round headed window on the first floor and an open pediment above. The outer bays in the central section featured sash windows on the ground floor and blind oculi above. The sections on either side contained sash windows on both floors. Internally, the principal room was the main hall which featured balustraded galleries. [8] [9]
The building served as a British Restaurant during the Second World War. [10] In the late 1950s the directors of Ronuk entered into negotiations to dispose of the company's assets and business; the social club was bought by Portslade Urban District Council, which was seeking larger offices. The Ronuk business was sold to Newton, Chambers & Co. [11] After appropriate conversion work had been carried out, the building was re-opened by the chairman of the council, Robert Shields, as Portslade Town Hall on 2 September 1959. [12]
The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the council through the 1960s and early 1970s but ceased to be the local seat of government when Porstlade was absorbed into Hove Borough Council in 1974. [13] A theatre organ, which had originally been designed and manufactured by Compton & Co for the Queens Cinema in Cricklewood, was augmented with parts from two other organs and then installed in the main hall for concert use in 1987. [14]
A programme of refurbishment works, which involved the creation of new offices for the local housing team and for the local neighbourhood policing team, as well as the development of a community hub for local people, was carried out in spring 2014. Following completion of the works, the building was re-opened by the Brighton and Hove mayor, Brian Fitch, on 11 June 2014. [15]
Hove is a seaside resort. It is one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, in East Sussex, England.
Brighton and Hove is unitary authority with city status in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administered by Brighton and Hove City Council, which is currently under Labour majority control.
Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove in the ceremonial county of East Sussex, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid development of the coastal area and in 1898 the southern part, formerly known as Copperas Gap, was granted urban district status and renamed Portslade-by-Sea, making it distinct from Portslade Village. After World War II the district of Mile Oak to the north was added. Today, Portslade is bisected from east to west by the old A27 road between Brighton and Worthing, each part having a distinct character.
Mile Oak is a locality forming the northern part of the former parish of Portslade in the northwest corner of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Now mostly residential, but originally an area of good-quality agricultural land, it covers the area north of Portslade village as far as the urban boundary.
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John Leopold DenmanFRIBA was an architect from the English seaside resort of Brighton, now part of the city of Brighton and Hove. He had a prolific career in the area during the 20th century, both on his own and as part of the Denman & Son firm in partnership with his son John Bluet Denman. Described as "the master of ... mid-century Neo-Georgian", Denman was responsible for a range of commercial, civic and religious buildings in Brighton, and pubs and hotels there and elsewhere on the south coast of England on behalf of Brighton's Kemp Town Brewery. He used other architectural styles as well, and was responsible for at least one mansion, several smaller houses, various buildings in cemeteries and crematoria, and alterations to many churches. His work on church restorations has been praised, and he has been called "the leading church architect of his time in Sussex"; he also wrote a book on the ecclesiastical architecture of the county.
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Moulsecoomb Place is a large 18th-century house on Lewes Road in the Moulsecoomb area of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Originally a farmhouse based in an agricultural area in the parish of Patcham, north of Brighton, it was bought and extensively remodelled in 1790 for a long-established local family. It was their seat for over 100 years, but the Neoclassical-style mansion and its grounds were bought by the local council in the interwar period when Moulsecoomb was transformed into a major council estate. Subsequent uses have varied, and Moulsecoomb Place later became part of the University of Brighton's range of buildings. Student housing has been built to the rear; but much of the grounds, the house itself and a much older cottage and barn attached to the rear have been preserved. The house is a Grade II Listed building.
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