Northampton Guildhall
| Northampton Guildhall | |
|
Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type: | Town hall |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP75586049 |
| Location: | 52°14’15"N, 0°53’41"W |
| Town: | Northampton |
| History | |
| Built 1864 | |
| By: | Edward William Godwin |
| Town hall | |
| Gothic Revival | |
| Information | |
Northampton Guildhall is a municipal building in St Giles' Square in Northampton, at the heart of Northamptonshire. It is a Grade II* listed building.[1]
History
The first guildhall in Northampton was a 12th-century building at the junction of Gold Street and Horsemarket.[2] The second guildhall was an early 14th-century battlemented structure at the corner of Abington Street and Wood Hill; it was sold in 1864 and subsequently demolished.[2][3]
The current building, the third guildhall, designed by Edward William Godwin[4] in the Gothic Revival style, was officially opened on 17 May 1864.[5] The original part of the building was symmetrical with three first-floor windows either side of the main entrance,[6] above which rose a clock tower with a steeply pitched roof.[1]
The clock, by J. Moore & Sons of Clerkenwell, was installed in 1867,[7] along with a hemispherical bell to strike the hours.[8]
The building was extended to the west to the designs of A W Jeffrey and Matthew Holding in 1892, creating a frontage of 14 bays with arcading on the ground floor and windows above on the first floor.[1] The sculptor R.L. Bolton was commissioned to design 14 statues of monarchs and other famous people which were erected on the front elevation between the windows on the first floor.[5] A modern extension to the east, built to accommodate the expanding office needs of Northampton Borough Council, was completed in 1992.[5]
Inside, the great hall displays murals of famous local men, painted by Colin Gill in 1925.[4] It also contains murals of The Muses Contemplating Northampton, painted by Henry Bird in 1949.[9][10] A statue by Sir Francis Chantrey of Spencer Perceval, Member of Parliament for Northampton and the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated, was originally unveiled in 1817 and is also on display inside.[1][11]
A series of bronze statues of Northampton's "history makers", cast by the sculptor Richard Austin, were unveiled in July 2017 within the courtyard of the 1992 extension.[12]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Northampton Guildhall) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 National Heritage List 1052399: Guildhall, Northampton (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "'Northampton', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northamptonshire, Volume 5, Archaeology and Churches in Northampton". London: British History Online. 1985. pp. 321–397. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/northants/vol5/pp321-397. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
- ↑ "Northampton Guildhall". Open Plaques. https://openplaques.org/plaques/40999. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, 1961; 1973 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-09632-3
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "The History of the Guildhall". Northampton Borough Council. https://www.northampton.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/11572/the-history-of-the-guildhall.pdf. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
- ↑ "1864 – Northampton Guildhall, Northamptonshire". Archiseek. https://archiseek.com/2013/northampton-town-hall/. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
- ↑ Pickford, Chris, ed (1995). Turret Clocks: Lists of Clocks from Makers' Catalogues and Publicity Materials (2nd ed.). Wadhurst, Sussex: Antiquarian Horological Society. p. 36.
- ↑ Walesby, Thomas (14 September 1867). "Shape of Bells for Public Clocks". The Builder XXV (1284): 686.
- ↑ Mayes, Ian (11 May 2000). "Obituary: Henry Bird". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/may/11/guardianobituaries.ianmayes. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
- ↑ "Henry Bird". Hatfield Hines. https://www.hatfieldhines.com/artists/henry-bird/. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
- ↑ Chantrey, Francis Leggatt. "Spencer Perceval (1762–1812)". Art UK. https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/spencer-perceval-17621812-255892. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
- ↑ "Northampton's history makers cast in bronze for new £44,000 borough council art installation". Northampton Chronicle. 3 July 2017. https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/northamptons-history-makers-cast-bronze-new-aps44000-borough-council-art-installation-1104770. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
