Building record 727/0/120 - No.86 Watling Street East (Town Hall)

{1} Former Town Hall and corn exchange. 1865 by T.H. Vernon. Limestone ashlar, banded with ironstone, hipped Welsh slate roof with ornamental ridge tiles and wrought iron finials. Italianate style. 2 storeys and attic. 3-window range. Complex plan. Central doorway with round-arched head, and keyblock on foliated capitals with ears of wheat, flanked by pilasters with similar capitals supporting console brackets bearing deep hood. Pair of 2-light windows to ground floor with similar heads and capitals . , outer capitals with ivy leafs; timber tracery. Smaller round-arched windows to first floor of 2 lights to centre, 3 lights to left and right with pilasters outermost, red sandstone columns innermost, stiff-leaf capitals and sash windows. Chamfered plinth, first floor cornice, modillioned eaves cornice, balustraded parapet and blank-arcaded stone stacks to angles. Centre and ends project slightly, with pediment to centre. Clock tower above with copper-clad belfry. 2-storey win . Of white brick in Flemish bond with segmental-arched sash windows and side door with segmental-arched head with keyblock flanked by pilasters supporting pediment. Bay with door is pedimented. Interior: fine hall with composite pilasters, entablature with dentil cornice, coved arcaded vault to two sides with ornamental glazing to round windows. South end wall has tall round-arched panel with paterae to archivolt;2 small arches to north wall. Foundation stone laid by the Earl of . Er 8th, 1865. The builder was J. Wheeler.

{4} Town Hall /Corn Exchange. The Town Hall and Corn Exchange was erected in 1866. A site was chosen to the end of Market Square and properties were demolished to make way for the building. The building was designed by TH Vernon and comprised a stone construction with an Italianate frontage. The building was used for a wide variety of events, but social and official. The building is still in public usage and is a listed structure. Film 3, photo 23.

{5} Undated photo;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 13/158 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), F08 p.73 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN45262.

<3> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.434 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<4> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester (Industrial), 3.4 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100255.

<5> Photographs of buildings in Towcester (Photographs). SNN114425.

Record last edited

Jan 18 2023 11:02AM