Oxford Town Hall
| Oxford Town Hall | |
|
Oxfordshire | |
|---|---|
.jpg) View from the south-west | |
| Type: | Town hall |
| Location | |
| Location: | 51°45’6"N, 1°15’25"W |
| City: | Oxford |
| History | |
| Built 1893-7 | |
| By: | Henry Hare |
| Town hall | |
| Jacobethan | |
| Information | |
| Website: | oxfordtownhall.co.uk |
Oxford Town Hall is a Grade-II*-listed building, opened by the then Prince of Wales in 1897 and located in St Aldate's Street in Oxford.[1] It is used a venue for meetings and events. It is also home to the Museum of Oxford and the administrative base of Oxford City Council.
History
Oxford's Guildhall was built on the site in 1292. It was replaced by the first Town Hall in 1752, designed by Isaac Ware. In 1891, an architectural design competition was held for a new building on the same site. The local architect Henry Hare won with a Jacobethan design. The 1752 building was demolished in 1893 and the current building was completed in 1897.
The new building originally housed the public library and police station as well as the city council. During the First World War, the building was converted into the Town Hall section of the 3rd Southern General Hospital. From 1916, it specialised in treating soldiers suffering from malaria.[2] In 1936 Oxford City Police moved to a new police station further down St Aldate's. The central public library is now in the Westgate Centre in Queen Street.
References
- ↑ Hibbert 1988, pp. 454–455.
- ↑ "Third Southern General Hospital in Oxford in World War I". http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/war/military_hospitals/. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
Sources and further reading
- Hibbert, Christopher, ed (1988). "Town Hall". The Encyclopaedia of Oxford. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-39917-X.
- Rose, Geoff (1979). A Pictorial History of the Oxford City Police. Oxford: Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN 0-86093-094-7.
- Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). Oxfordshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 302. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
- Tyack, Geoffrey (1998). Oxford An Architectural Guide. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 259–262. ISBN 0-19-817423-3.
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Oxford Town Hall) |
- "Virtual Tour of the Oxford Town Hall". Oxford City Council Virtual Tours. Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford. 2004. http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/oxfordcitytours/townhall.asp.
- Jenkins, Stephanie (13 September 2012). "The new Town Hall, Oxford". Oxford History, Mayors & Lord Mayors. http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/mayors/town_hall/new.html.