Aylesbury Town Hall

Aylesbury Town Hall is a name which has been used for two different buildings in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England. Since 2007 the name has been used for an office building at 5 Church Street, which serves as the headquarters of Aylesbury Town Council.[1] The name was also formerly used for a complex of buildings which had been built in 1865 as a corn exchange in Market Square, and which served as the offices and meeting place of the local council from 1901 to 1968. The majority of the old town hall was demolished shortly afterwards, leaving only the entrance archway facing Market Square still standing, now called Town Hall Arches.[2] This remaining part of the old town hall is a Grade II* listed building as part of the range of civic buildings on the southern side of Market Square including the old County Hall.[3]

Aylesbury Town Hall
Town Hall Arches
LocationMarket Square, Aylesbury
Coordinates51.8158°N 0.8117°W / 51.8158; -0.8117
Built1865
ArchitectDavid Brandon
Architectural style(s)Jacobean style
Listed Building – Grade II*
Designated7 April 1952
Reference no.1117935
Aylesbury Town Hall is located in Buckinghamshire
Aylesbury Town Hall
Shown in Buckinghamshire

Town Hall, Market Square

This building was originally commissioned as a corn exchange by a consortium of local businessmen, who formed a venture known as the "Aylesbury Market Company", which was established with capital of £18,000 under an Act of Parliament in 1863.[4][5] The site chosen for the building had been occupied the White Hart Inn, a coaching inn.[6][lower-alpha 1]

The White Hart Inn was acquired and demolished in 1864.[6] The new building was designed by David Brandon in the Jacobean style, built in red brick with stone dressings and completed in 1865.[9] The building was in three distinct sections, comprising a large corn exchange hall to the east, a single-storey covered market building to the south, and an entrance archway wing to the west, which included the building's main frontage onto Market Square. The design of the archway wing involved a near-symmetrical main frontage with four bays facing onto the Market Square; the right hand three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a wide carriageway in the middle bay flanked by full height columns with a bay window on the first floor and a parapet and a gable containing an oculus above.[3] The outer bays in the right hand section featured pedestrian archways flanked by full height columns with a mullion window on the first floor and a parapet above.[3] The left hand bay, which was barely visible, was topped with a mansard roof.[3] The Aylesbury Market Company got into financial difficulties caused by the agricultural depression in the 1870s.[10]

Aylesbury had been governed by a local board of health since 1849, which became Aylesbury Urban District Council in 1894.[11] The new council acquired the market rights and ownership of the corn exchange from the company in 1901.[12] At a meeting on 4 March 1901 the council voted to change the name of the building from Corn Exchange to Town Hall.[13] The council converted the former covered market in the southern wing of the building to become its municipal offices, and used the main hall for meetings and public events. The urban district council went on to secure municipal borough status in 1917, becoming Aylesbury Borough Council, with the town hall continuing to serve as its headquarters.[11]

The interior of the town hall was badly damaged in a fire, which was attributed to arson, on 14 March 1962, particularly affecting the main hall and the archway wing. The rear façade of the archway was subsequently rebuilt but without any of the original decoration.[14][15]

In 1968 the council moved its offices to 4 Great Western Street, being part of the newly built Friars Square shopping centre on the western side of Market Square.[16][17] The majority of the town hall complex was demolished shortly afterwards, leaving only the archway wing and a small stub of the former main hall of the town hall, which was used as a café. A new civic centre was built on the rest of the site of the town hall, opening in 1975. The civic centre served both as an entertainment venue and as the council chamber and meeting rooms for Aylesbury Vale District Council, which had been formed in 1974 as a merger of the old Aylesbury Borough Council and neighbouring authorities. Aylesbury Vale District Council continued to meet at the civic centre and have its main offices at 4 Great Western Street until 2010, when it relocated out of the town centre to The Gateway on Gatehouse Road.[18][19][20]

The civic centre was demolished in 2011, along with the remaining stub of the old main hall of the 1865 building, leaving only the archway wing surviving from that building. The site was redeveloped with a mixed retail and residential development. In recognition of the numerous appearances of David Bowie at the civic centre, a statue of him was erected in 2018 under the Town Hall Arches.[2]

Town Hall, Church Street
Modern Town Hall at 5 Church Street

When Aylesbury Borough Council was abolished in 1974, the town became an unparished area, directly administered by Aylesbury Vale District Council. A civil parish of Aylesbury was re-established in 2001, with its council taking the name Aylesbury Town Council.[21] In 2007 Aylesbury Town Council bought an existing office building at 5 Church Street, converting it to become their offices and meeting place and renaming it Town Hall.[22][1]

See also

Notes
  1. The White Hart Inn, which had been designed in the neoclassical style, was completed in the 17th century[7] and refaced in stone recovered from Eythrope House in 1814.[8]

References
  1. "20 Years of Aylesbury Town Council". Aylesbury Town Council. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  2. Aylesbury Vale planning application 18/00018/ALB: Erection of statue of David Bowie at Aylesbury Crown Court, 38 Market Square, Aylesbury, HP20 1XD, submitted 3 January 2018, granted 22 Mar 2018. Heritage Statement paragraph 3.8: "Though the list description refers to the Arches structure as the former town hall, historic documents and maps make it clear that the Arches structure is actually the surviving joining structure between the 18th century Courts building and the originally much larger Corn Exchange which extended to the east and south and only later became the Town Hall in 1901."
  3. Historic England. "The County Hall, including the former town hall, the former county constabulary headquarters and the judge's lodgings, Aylesbury (1117935)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  4. "Aylesbury Market Act 1863". Vlex. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  5. "Aylesbury". Kelly's Directory of Buckinghamshire. 1899. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  6. "White Hart Hotel". Aylesbury Remembered. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  7. "Buckinghamshire Historic Towns Assessment Report: Aylesbury" (PDF). Buckinghamshire County Council. p. 121. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  8. Colvin, H. M. (1964). "Eythrope House and its demolition in 1810-11" (PDF). Buckinghamshire County Council. p. 226. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  9. "Brandon, D., F.R.I.B.A., 24 Berkeley Square, London". The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  10. Hanley, Hugh; Hunt, Julian (1993). Aylesbury a Pictorial History. Phillimore & Co.
  11. "Aylesbury Urban District / Municipal Borough". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  12. Page, William (1925). "'The borough of Aylesbury: Introduction and borough', in A History of the County of Buckingham". London: British History Online. pp. 1–11. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  13. "Aylesbury Urban District Council: Aylesbury Town Hall". Bucks Herald. Aylesbury. 9 March 1901. p. 6. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  14. "Town Hall fire, March 1962". Aylesbury Remembered. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  15. "Arson Theory after Hall is Wrecked". Aylesbury Advertiser. 16 March 1962. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  16. "Aylesbury Borough Council". London Gazette (44547): 3150. 15 March 1968. Retrieved 18 May 2022. Town Hall, Aylesbury
  17. "Aylesbury Borough Council". London Gazette (44583): 5350. 10 May 1968. Retrieved 18 May 2022. Municipal Offices, Friars Square, Aylesbury
  18. Aylesbury Vale council meetings: last full council meeting at Maxwell Hall, Civic Centre held on 24 February 2010. First full council meeting at the Oculus (council chamber), The Gateway held on 14 April 2010.
  19. Aylesbury Vale planning application 12/02008/APP: Conversion and extension of former offices to residential at Friars House, 4 Great Western Street, Aylesbury, HP20 2TW, submitted 9 Sep 2012, granted 9 Apr 2014. Committee report says office building constructed in late 1960s and occupied by AVDC staff until 2010.
  20. "Aylesbury Vale District Council Offices". Aylesbury Map. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  21. The Aylesbury Vale (Parishes) Order 2000 (Statutory Instrument 2000 No. 3095) (PDF). 2000. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  22. "Aylesbury Town Council". Buckinghamshire Family Information Service. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
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