Preston Town Hall

The Town Hall completed in 1867

The first town hall was a medieval structure built on the south side of the Market Square which collapsed in June 1780.[2][3] It was replaced by a second town hall which was a brick building built on the same site in 1782 and augmented by a cupola in 1814.[2]

After significant industrial growth in the first half of the 19th century, particularly in relation to the cotton industry, civic leaders decided to procure a third town hall on the same site.[4] The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the mayor, Robert Townley Parker, on 2 September 1862.[5] It was designed by George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic style, built by Cooper and Tullis of Preston at a cost of £69,412 and was officially opened by the Duke of Cambridge on 3 October 1867.[4][6][7] The design involved arcading on the ground floor and tracery windows on the first floor and it featured a tower at the south west corner which was 197 feet (60 m) high.[4][8] The tower housed a Cambridge-chiming clock by William Potts & Son,[9] with bells by Taylor of Loughborough;[10] at the time it was one of the largest gravity-escapement clocks to have been made in England.[9]

As the responsibilities of the borough council increased, council leaders decided to procure a municipal office building to provide extra office space for council officers and their departments: the site selected was open ground in Lancaster Road between the police station to the north and the Sessions House to the south.[11] The municipal office building, which was designed by Sir Arnold Thornely in the Neoclassical style was completed in 1934.[1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with eleven bays facing onto the Lancaster Road with the last three bays at each end slightly projected forward; the central section of five bays, which rose higher than the end sections, featured a doorway with an architrave and a pediment decorated with acroteria; in each of the sections the centre window on the first floor was equipped with a balcony.[1]

As part of a two-day visit to Lancashire, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth attended a lunch hosted by the Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, Lord Derby, at County Hall before meeting civic leaders at the town hall in March 1945 during the Second World War.[12]

The town hall burnt down on 15 March 1947 and was subsequently demolished and a modern building known as Crystal House was built on the site in 1962.[13] A council chamber was created in the municipal office building which was renamed the Preston Town Hall in 1971.[2] The new town hall continued to be the local seat of government after the enlarged Preston District Council was formed in 1974[14] and remained its home after the local authority secured city status as Preston City Council in 2002.[15]