Egremont Town Hall

Following significant growth in the population, largely associated with the expansion of open-pit iron mining in the area,[2] Egremont became a local government district with its own local board of health in 1879.[3] In this context, the local board decided to commission a new market hall: the site they chose for the market hall was open land to the west of Main Street.[4] The market hall was completed in 1883 and the local board followed this up, a few years later, with the procurement of a town hall on a site to the east of the market hall.[5]

The new town hall was designed in the Gothic Revival style, built in fine sandstone at a cost of £5,000 and was completed in 1890.[6] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Main Street; the central bay was formed by a five-stage clock tower with a doorway with a fanlight in the first stage, a segmental window in the second stage, a segmental niche in the third stage, a belfry in the fourth stage and a series of clock faces in the fifth stage: the tower was surmounted by a pyramid-shaped roof. The two outer bays on the left were surmounted with a gable, as were the two outer bays on the right: the outer bays were fenestrated by pointed windows on the ground floor and segmental windows on the first floor. Internally, the principal room was the office for the local board.[3]

After the area became an urban district, with the town hall as its headquarters, in 1894,[7] the new council designated some rooms for teaching and a new school was established in the building in 1895.[8] The town hall ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Ennerdale Rural District Council was formed at Cleator Moor in 1934.[7][9] It was subsequently used as a venue for community events including theatre and cinema performances.[10]

The declining use of the building caused Copeland District Council to market the building for sale in 2010.[11] However, there was limited interest from purchasers and the building was withdrawn from sale, so that the local public library could relocate to the town hall later that year.[12][13]

• Listed buildings in Egremont, Cumbria