Sheffield Old Town Hall
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Sheffield Old Town Hall lies on Waingate in central Sheffield, England, opposite Castle Market.
The building was commissioned to replace Sheffield's first town hall, which had opened in 1700 to a design by William Renny. This first structure lay by the parish church, on a site with little prospect for extension.
The Old Town Hall was built in 1807–8 by Charles Watson, and was designed to house not only the Town Trustees but also the Petty and Quarter Sessions. The initial building was a five-bay structure fronting Castle Street, but it was extended in 1833 and again by Flockton & Abbott in 1866, most prominently by the addition of a central clock tower over a new main entrance, reorienting the building to Waingate. At the same time, the building's courtrooms were linked by underground passages to the neighbouring Sheffield Police Offices.
The first Town Council was elected in 1843 and took over the lease of the Town Trustees' hall in 1866. The following year, the building was extensively renovated, with a clock tower designed by Flockton & Abbott being added.
By the 1890s, the building had again become too small, and the current Sheffield Town Hall was built further south. The Old Town Hall was again extended in 1896-7, by the renamed Flockton, Gibbs & Flockton, and became Sheffield Crown Court and Sheffield High Court. In the 1990s, these courts moved to new premises, and as of 2006, the building is disused.
[edit] References
- Pevsner Architectural Guides: Sheffield, Ruth Harman and John Minnis
