| St Ives Guildhall | |
|---|---|
 St Ives Guildhall | |
| Location | Street An Pol, St Ives |
| Coordinates | 50°12′42″N5°28′49″W / 50.2116°N 5.4803°W |
| Built | 1939 |
| Architect | Geoffrey B. Drewitt |
| Architectural style(s) | Neoclassical style |
  Shown in Cornwall | |
St Ives Guildhall is a municipal structure in Street An Pol, St Ives, Cornwall, England. The structure, which is the meeting place of St Ives Town Council, is a locally listed heritage asset. [1]
The first municipal building in St Ives was a medieval guildhall in Fore Street which was completed in 1490. [2] The local portreeve, John Payne, who held meetings in the old guildhall, was hanged as a rebel during the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. [2] In the 1820s, civic leaders decided to demolish the old guildhall and replace it with a market hall. The new market hall, which included a lock-up on the ground floor and an assembly hall on the first floor, was completed in 1832: the area became a municipal borough with the building functioning as its headquarters in 1835. [3] The assembly room was used as a courthouse as well as a civic meeting place. [2]
Following a significant increase in population, largely associated with the fishing industry, civic leaders decided that the town needed a purpose-built guildhall: the site they selected in Street An Pol, was occupied by a mansion known as The Retreat, which had been the home of the Anthony family and, later, of the Lanham family. [4] In the late 19th century, James Lanham had opened an art gallery which was the genesis of the St Ives art colony. [5]
The new building was designed by a local architect, Geoffrey B. Drewitt, in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1939. [1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Street An Pol; the central bay featured a deeply recessed doorway with a stone surround flanked by brackets supporting a wide wrought iron balcony which encompassed the centre three bays. The ground floor was fenestrated by rows of six small windows on either side of the central bay while the first floor was fenestrated by tall sash windows and there was a turret at roof level. Internally, the principal rooms were the main hall, the council chamber, the balcony room and the mayor's parlour. [6]
The guildhall continued to serve as the headquarters of the borough council for much of the 20th century, [7] but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Penwith District Council was formed in 1974. [8] A visitor information centre was subsequently established in the guildhall, [9] which also became the meeting place of St Ives Town Council. [10]
A bronze sculpture entitled Dual Form , designed by the sculptor, Dame Barbara Hepworth, who lived in St Ives, [11] was unveiled outside the guildhall in 1966. [12] In 2024, it was reported that the sculpture would be moved to Kresen Kernow in Redruth while the guildhall underwent renovation. [13] Works of art in the guildhall include a painting by Mary McCrossan depicting an interior with a still life, [14] and a painting by Robert Borlase Smart depicting a clipper in St Ives Bay [15] as well as a smaller sculpture by Barbara Hepworth entitled Small Form. [16]
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times, it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial emphasis, and the town is now primarily a popular seaside resort, notably achieving the title of Best UK Seaside Town from the British Travel Awards in both 2010 and 2011. St Ives was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1639. St Ives has become renowned for its number of artists. It was named best seaside town of 2007 by The Guardian newspaper.
Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leading figure in the colony of artists who resided in St Ives during the Second World War.
Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists with links to the St Ives area. The Tate also took over management of another museum in the town, the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, in 1980.
Redruth is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. According to the 2011 census, the population of Redruth was 14,018 In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also includes Carn Brea, Illogan and several outlying villages, stood at 55,400 which made it the largest conurbation in Cornwall. Redruth lies approximately at the junction of the A393 and A3047 roads, on the route of the old London to Land's End trunk road, and is approximately 9 miles (14 km) west of Truro, 12 miles (19 km) east of St Ives, 18 miles (29 km) north east of Penzance and 11 miles (18 km) north west of Falmouth. Camborne and Redruth together form the largest urban area in Cornwall and before local government reorganisation were an urban district.
The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden in St Ives, Cornwall preserves the 20th-century sculptor Barbara Hepworth's studio and garden much as they were when she lived and worked there. She purchased the site in 1949 and lived and worked there for 26 years until her death in a fire on the premises in 1975.
Sir Alan Bowness CBE was a British art historian, art critic, and museum director. He was the director of the Tate Gallery between 1980 and 1988.
The Penwith Society of Arts is an art group formed in St Ives, Cornwall, England, UK, in early 1949 by abstract artists who broke away from the more conservative St Ives School. It was originally led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, and included members of the Crypt Group of the St Ives Society, including Peter Lanyon and Sven Berlin. Other early members included: Leonard Fuller, Isobel Heath, Alexander Mackenzie, John Wells, Bryan Wynter, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, David Haughton, Denis Mitchell, and the printer Guido Morris. Herbert Read was invited to be the first president.
The St Ives School refers to a group of artists living and working in the Cornish town of St Ives. The term is often used to refer to the 20th century groups which sprung up after the First World War around such artists as Borlase Smart, however there was considerable artistic activity there from the late 19th Century onwards.
Denis Adeane Mitchell was an English abstract sculptor who worked mainly in bronze and wood. A prominent member of the St Ives group of artists, he worked as an assistant to Barbara Hepworth for many years.
Sven Paul Berlin was an English painter, writer and sculptor. He is now best known for his controversial fictionalised autobiography The Dark Monarch, which was withdrawn just days after publication in 1962 following legal action. The book became the theme of an exhibition in Tate St Ives in autumn 2009 when it was re-published.
Sphere with Inner Form is a bronze sculpture by English artist Barbara Hepworth, with six castings made in 1963 and two more 1965. It is sometimes interpreted as a child in a pregnant woman's womb, or as a metaphor for the creation of a sculpture.
Single Form is a monumental bronze sculpture by the British artist Barbara Hepworth. It is her largest work, and one of her most prominent public commissions, displayed since 1964 in a circular water feature that forms a traffic island at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, outside the United Nations Secretariat Building and the Dag Hammarskjöld Library. It is also the largest artwork cast by the Morris Singer foundry.
Meridian is a bronze sculpture by British artist Barbara Hepworth. It is an early example of her public commissions, commissioned for State House, a new 16-storey office block constructed at 66–71 High Holborn, London, in the early 1960s. The sculpture was made in 1958–59, and erected in 1960. When the building was demolished in 1992, the sculpture was sold and moved to the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens in Purchase, New York.
Lys Kernow, known as New County Hall between 1966 and 2009, is a municipal facility at Treyew Road in Truro, Cornwall. Dalvenie House, which is at the north end of the site, is retained for use as the county register office. The building, which serves as the headquarters of Cornwall Council, is a Grade II listed building.
John Milne (1931–1978) was an English abstract sculptor who worked mainly in bronze and wood but also aluminium and stone. A prominent member of the St Ives group of artists, he was a pupil and worked as an assistant to Barbara Hepworth for two years.
The Palais de Danse is a former cinema, dance hall, ballet school and auction house in St Ives, Cornwall which was a studio for sculptor and artist Barbara Hepworth from 1961 until her death in 1975. After her death, the Palais was kept by her family until it was donated to Tate in 2015. In 2020, Historic England designated it a Grade II listed building.
Bodmin Guildhall is a historic building in Fore Street in Bodmin, a town in Cornwall, in England. The structure, which was used for municipal purposes before being converted for use as a baker's shop and restaurant, is a Grade II listed building.
Dual Form is a bronze sculpture by the British artist Barbara Hepworth.