Waterloo Town Hall, Merseyside

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Waterloo Town Hall
Crosby Town Hall, Waterloo, Merseyside.jpg
Waterloo Town Hall
Location Waterloo, Merseyside
Coordinates 53°28′21″N3°01′30″W / 53.4724°N 3.0251°W / 53.4724; -3.0251 Coordinates: 53°28′21″N3°01′30″W / 53.4724°N 3.0251°W / 53.4724; -3.0251
Built1862
ArchitectF. S. Spencer Yates
Architectural style(s) Italianate style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameTown Hall
Designated26 March 1973
Reference no.1257616
Merseyside UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Shown in Merseyside

Waterloo Town Hall, also known as Crosby Town Hall (from 1937 to 1974), is a municipal building in Great George's Road in Waterloo, Merseyside, England. The building, which was the headquarters of Waterloo Urban District Council from 1863 to 1937 and then of Crosby Borough Council from 1937 to 1974, is a Grade II listed building. [1]

Contents

History

In anticipation of the formation of the new urban district of Waterloo with Seaforth, which was formed out of Litherland in 1863, civic leaders decided to procure a dedicated town hall: [2] the site they selected was open land just south of Waterloo railway station. [3]

The building, which was designed in the Italianate style by the council surveyor, F. S. Spencer Yates, opened in 1862. [1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Great George's Road; the central section featured a portico with Tuscan order columns supporting a frieze with triglyphs; there was a stained glass pedimented window on the first floor, flanked by two other pedimented windows with plain glass, and there was a cornice with dentils at roof level. [1] Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the mayor's parlour. [4] A large extension to the rear was completed in 1893. [1]

The building served as the town hall for the Waterloo with Seaforth Urban District and, following the merger of that district with Great Crosby Urban District to form the Borough of Crosby, the town hall became headquarters of the new Crosby Borough Council in 1937. [5] [6] [lower-alpha 1] It ceased to be the local seat of government on the formation of Sefton Council in 1974. [8] However, it continued to be used as offices by the social services department of Sefton Council [9] and also continued to be used as the local register office as well as a venue for marriages and civil partnerships. [4] [10] After it became clear that the building was in need of extensive refurbishment, in February 2009, a local residents' association expressed their interest in converting the building for use as a heritage centre. [9]

In March 2020, the town hall, along with the Atkinson Art Gallery and Library and Bootle Town Hall, was the venue for A Nightingale's Song, a video production produced by Illuminos as part of Sefton's Borough of Culture celebrations, which involved the projection of a story describing local coastal communities onto prominent buildings. [11] [12] [13]

See also

Notes

  1. Alexandra Hall, completed in 1888 and situated at the junction of Mersey Road, College Road and Coronation Road had originally contained the council offices for Crosby Urban District Council. [7]

Related Research Articles

Merseyside Metropolitan county in North West England

Merseyside is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral and the city of Liverpool. Merseyside, which was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, takes its name from the River Mersey and sits within the historic counties of Lancashire and Cheshire.

Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Metropolitan borough in England

The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on 1 April 1974, by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, the urban districts of Formby and Litherland, and part of West Lancashire Rural District. It consists of a coastal strip of land on the Irish Sea which extends from Southport in the north to Bootle in the south, and an inland part to Maghull in the south-east, bounded by the city of Liverpool to the south, the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley to the south-east, and West Lancashire to the east.

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Great Crosby Human settlement in England

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Litherland Human settlement in England

Litherland is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside. It was an urban district, which included Seaforth and Ford. It neighbours Waterloo to the north, Seaforth to the west, and Bootle to the south and is approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Liverpool city centre.

Formby Town in England

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Crosby, Merseyside Town in England

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Waterloo, Merseyside Human settlement in England

Waterloo is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in Merseyside, England. Along with Seaforth the two localities make up the Sefton Ward of Church. The area is bordered by Crosby to the north, Seaforth to the south, the Rimrose Valley country park to the east, and to the west the Crosby Beach and Crosby Coastal Park.

Freshfield Human settlement in England

Freshfield is an area of Formby, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, situated at the northern end of the town. It has no local political distinction or representation and is included as part of the two council wards which make up Formby, nor is it any longer separated in a physical sense from the town.

Netherton, Merseyside Human settlement in England

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Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway

The Liverpool, Crosby and Southport Railway (LC&SR) received parliamentary authorization on 2 July 1847 and opened between Southport and Liverpool, on 24 July 1848. The Liverpool terminal was a temporary station on the viaduct passing near to Waterloo Goods station.

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Seaforth, Merseyside Human settlement in England

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Crosby Beach Beach near Liverpool, England

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Historic England. "Town Hall (1257616)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  2. Farrer, William; Brownbill, J. (1907). "'Townships: Litherland', in A History of the County of Lancaster". London: British History Online. pp. 95–98. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  3. "Ordnance Survey Map". 1850. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Marriage Venues". Sefton Council. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  5. Hollinghurst, Hugh (2014). "Waterloo, Seaforth & Litherland Through Time". Amberley Publishing. ISBN   978-1445615103.
  6. "No. 43834". The London Gazette . 7 December 1965. p. 11462.
  7. "Mersey Beat - Alexandra Hall, Crosby". The Football Voice. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  8. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . House of Commons. 6 July 1972. col. 878.
  9. 1 2 "A bid to convert Waterloo Town Hall into a museum and heritage centre is being launched by a community group". Liverpool Echo. 19 February 2009. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  10. "Births". Sefton Council. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  11. "Prominent Sefton buildings to be lit up in 'unique light extravaganza". Your Magazine Liverpool. 10 February 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  12. "Unique light extravaganza will illuminate Sefton landmarks". Liverpool Echo. 10 February 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  13. "A Nightingale's Song shines bright on Sefton landmarks!". My Sefton. 16 March 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.