Town Hall

Description

This information is taken from the statutory List as it was in 2001 and may not be up to date.

SD 73 SE PADIHAM BURNLEY ROAD (south side)

3/31 Town Hall - - II

Town Hall, now Council Offices, with theatre and ball-room. 1938 by Bradshaw Gass and Hope. Brick in Flemish bond with stone dressings and green slate roof. 2 storeys and 11 bays by 7, built around a hollow square with single storey theatre parallel to front block. Main facade has 3-bay centre, slightly projecting and emphasised by a tetrastyle Corinthian portico with the Padiham UDC coat of arms in the pediment. Above is a sort of square,finialled cupola-cum-clock turret of Scandinavian inspiration.

Main doorway has moulded architrave, and the keystone in its flat arch bears the figure of a woman carrying a distaff and a shuttle. Door panels have rectangular fields with canted corners - a motif found throughout the building. The first floor windows. have balconies with a long S motif which also is frequently found in the building. To either side of the steps in front of the portico is a planter decorated with highly stylised acanthus leaves and in front of each end of the building is a flagpole whose base is of comparable inspiration. Side wings have windows with slightly cambered heads, stone plinth and ground floor sill band, a plain band at the level of the portico cornice and rusticated outer corners. Theatre entrance along Left-hand return wall projects slightly with fluted pilasters ostensibly supporting a shallow canopy above which is a carved brick panel representing a faun playing the Pan pipes. Interior is almost unchanged in its main spaces, and original light fittings remain in stairhall, Council Chamber and theatre. Entrance hall with faintly Classical motifs leading to imperial staircase in a top-lit stairhall. At head of stairs rectangular top-lit former Council Chamber has some faintly Classical motifs and woodwork in keeping, while former Town Clerk's office has original electric fire.

Library has original book shelves. Theatre is lit from top and sides, has a wood panelled dado and Art Deco proscenium arch whose canted corners are echoed in the coves of the coffered ceiling.

The best example in the County (and an uncommonly well preserved one) of a town hall in the (as yet) unfashionable style, which compromised between traditional civic dignity and contemporary styling.

Listing NGR: SD7944533821

Content

This is part of the Series: IOE01/1078 IOE Records taken by Peter Hyde; within the Collection: IOE01 Images Of England

Rights

© Mr Peter Hyde. Source: Historic England Archive

This photograph was taken for the Images of England project