Richmond Town Hall, North Yorkshire

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Richmond Town Hall
Richmond Town Hall (geograph 5772816) (cropped).jpg
Richmond Town Hall
LocationThe Market Place, Richmond
Coordinates 54°24′10″N1°44′15″W / 54.4027°N 1.7375°W / 54.4027; -1.7375 Coordinates: 54°24′10″N1°44′15″W / 54.4027°N 1.7375°W / 54.4027; -1.7375
Built1756
Architect Thomas Atkinson
Architectural style(s) Neoclassical style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameTown Hall, Town Hall Hotel
Designated1 August 1952
Reference no.1240517
North Yorkshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Shown in North Yorkshire

Richmond Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Place, Richmond, North Yorkshire, England. The structure, which is the meeting place of Richmond Town Council, is a grade II listed building. [1]

History

The current building was erected on the site of the ancient guildhall of the Guild of St John the Baptist. [2] It was designed by Thomas Atkinson in the neoclassical style, built in rubble masonry with a stucco finish at a cost of £600 and was completed in 1756. [3] [4] The design involved a near symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the Market Place; the left hand section featured a doorway with Tuscan order columns supporting an entablature in the right hand bay, while the right hand section featured a rusticated archway in the central bay. The first floor was fenestrated by a row of sash windows with keystones. The ground floor of the left hand section formed a public house while the remainder of the building formed the town hall. [5] A double curving stone staircase provided access to the main assembly hall which displayed a coat of arms of King George II and extended the full width of the whole building on the first floor. [6]

A courtroom, which was situated to the rear of the assembly hall, was used for petty session hearings which were held one a fortnight. [7] A large five-sided stone porch containing a doorway with a fanlight, a hood mould and a keystone, flanked by pilasters supporting an entablature, was added to the central bay in the 19th century. [1] Following the end of the Second Boer War, a reception was held in the town hall for members of the volunteer battalions of the Green Howards who had served in South Africa. [8]

After the death of the founder of the scout movement, Lord Baden-Powell, in January 1941, his widow, Lady Baden-Powell, presented a landscape painting, depicting a view from Richmond Castle down the Swale Valley, to the town; the painting, which had originally been commissioned on the occasion of the Baden-Powells' marriage, was hung over the mantelpiece in the mayor's parlour. [4] A plaque commemorating the borough's fund raising effort during Warship Week was erected in the building in 1942. [2] Additional plaques were installed to reflect the borough's fund raising effort during Wings for Victory Week in 1943 [9] and during Salute the Soldier Week in 1944. [10]

A large reception room on the ground floor of the right-hand section of the building was refurbished and fitted out as a council chamber with new furniture supplied by Waring & Gillow in 1956. [4] An early 17th century portrait of Queen Elizabeth I on a wooden panel, which had previously hung in the Bowes Hospital at the foot of Anchorage Hill, was installed in the council chamber. [11] [12] The courtroom on the first floor remained in use as a judicial facility until 1964 when hearings moved to the new magistrates' courts in I'Anson Road. [13]

The council chamber ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Richmondshire District Council was formed at Swale House in Richmond in 1974. [14] [15] [16] However, it subsequently became the meeting place of Richmond Town Council. [17] The courtroom, although no longer in use, was restored in 2002, [18] and the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall attended a reception in the town hall in September 2005. [19] The future Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, spoke at a meeting in the town hall, arranged to make the case for Brexit, in June 2016. [20]

Other works of art in the town hall include a painting by Harold Speed depicting Green Bridge, [21] a painting by Arthur Bell showing a goose fair in the town [22] and a painting by Robert Gallon depicting a view of the river. [23]

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References

  1. 1 2 Historic England. "Town Hall, Town Hall Hotel (1240517)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  2. 1 2 Hatcher, Jane (2011). "Some of the Treasures of Richmond Town Hall". Richmond Town Council. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  3. ↑ Pevsner, Nikolaus (1981). Yorkshire, The North Riding (Buildings of England Series). Yale University Press. p. 295. ISBN   978-0300096651.
  4. 1 2 3 Hatcher, Jane (2010). "Town Hall". Richmond Town Council. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  5. ↑ "Richmond: Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Proposals" (PDF). Richmondshire District Council. p. 2. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  6. ↑ "Richmond Town Hall". North Yorkshire County Council. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  7. ↑ "Richmond". Kelly's Directory of the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire. 1913. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  8. ↑ Powell, Geoffrey; Powell, John S.W. (2015). "The History of the Green Howards". Pen and Sword. p. 118. ISBN   978-1473857995.
  9. ↑ "Wings for Victory Week". Art UK. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  10. ↑ "Salute the Soldier Week" . Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  11. ↑ Page, William (1914). "'The borough of Richmond', in A History of the County of York North Riding". London: British History Online. pp. 17–35. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  12. ↑ "Elizabeth I (1533–1603)". Art UK. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  13. ↑ "Battle to stave off court's closure". The Northern Echo. 29 November 2001. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
  14. ↑ Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN   0-10-547072-4.
  15. ↑ "No. 46690". The London Gazette . 19 September 1975. p. 11861.
  16. ↑ "Last Richmond Council Office Sold". Richmond Online. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  17. ↑ "Meetings". Richmond Town Council. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  18. ↑ "Richmond Town Hall". Richmond Online. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  19. ↑ "Visit to Ricmond". Royal Circular. 14 September 2005. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  20. ↑ Ashcroft, Michael (2020). Going for Broke: The Rise of Rishi Sunak. Biteback Publishing. ISBN   978-1785906381.
  21. ↑ "View of Green Bridge" . Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  22. ↑ "Goose Fair at Richmond". Art UK. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  23. ↑ "View of Richmond". Art UK. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
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