Council House

Details

TA 3008 NE CLEETHORPES CAMBRIDGE STREET (north side)

8/8 Council House 17/9/80

GV II

Council Offices. 1903-04 by Herbert C Scaping of Grimsby, architect, Egbert Rushton, engineer and surveyor, and Henry Marrows, builder, for Cleethorpes and Thrunscoe Urban District Council. Council chamber refurbished 1936; general restorations and internal alterations to east wing in 1987-8. Red brick in English Garden Wall bond with ashlar dressings. Green slate roof to front, Welsh slate roofs to rear. Wooden cupola with lead-covered dome. Edwardian Baroque style. L-shaped on plan: main central block 3 rooms deep with 2-room, central entrance-hall front, flanked by recessed wing to left and longer wing set back to rear right. Main block of 2 storeys with basement, 2 : 1 : 2 bays, with recessed lower 2-storey wings, the left wing of two stepped-back single-bay sections, and the right wing with a single bay to front and 8 irregular bays to right return. Continuous deep plinth with moulded ashlar capping, moulded stringcourses and ashlar banding throughout. Entrance has flight of 7 stone steps to projecting single-storey enclosed ashlar porch with banded rustication, round-arched concave-moulded doorway with triple keystone and impost band, moulded cornice and balustraded parapet. Porch supports a pair of ashlar Roman Ionic columns, rising full height of first floor, with husk festoons hanging from capitals, and dosserets with egg-and-dart cornice carrying a deep modillioned broken pediment with panelled soffit. Baroque cartouche in tympanum with carved head and fronds, inscribed "1904". Ground floor: moulded sill stringcourse, 12-pane sashes in segmental-headed ashlar architraves with double keys and flush lintels rising to moulded first-floor stringcourse. First floor: similar sashes in square-headed architraves with tall double keys, linked by 4 flush ashlar bands. Deep Ionic modillioned eaves cornice flanking central pediment; blocking course. Coped gables. End stacks with flush ashlar bands and moulded cornices. Central cupola: tapered square base with moulded cornice carrying lantern/bell turret with louvred openings, pilasters with scrolled feet, moulded cornice and ribbed dome with flagpole finial. Similar decorative details and fenestration to gable ends of main block and wings, the gable ends wih single windows to each floor and a flush band across the gable, the wings with first-floor windows in architraves without keystones, linked by a flush lintel band with modillioned cornice and balustraded parapet, low-pitched hipped. roofs and banded stacks. Interior. Porch has ashlar memorial tablet with egg-and-dart border, draped urns and crest above, and inscription with names of architect, builder etc, dated 3rd December 1903; internal entrance with part-glazed panelled double doors in oak surround with architrave, Ionic pilasters, pulvinated frieze, egg-and-dart cornice and segmental pediment. Entrance hall: black and white diagonal-patterned marble floor, tripartite arcade to stairhall with round arches on squat scagliola Tuscan columns. Imperial staircase of cantilever ashlar steps with ornate cast-iron balustrade of bold Arts and Crafts foliate design. Venetian stairwindow with Ionic pilasters and archivolt with "Gibbs"-type voussoirs, containing stained glass with coats of arms; moulded cornice to stairhall ceiling with large domed rooflight with ornate glazing bars. Moulded cornices, round-arched openings to hall and corridors on both floors with moulded capitals, archivolts and panelled soffits. Council chamber, to first-floor front, has plaster modillioned ceiling cornice with pediment, segmental-vaulted plaster ceiling with moulded ribs bearing fruit and foliage; ornate oak fittings, (incorporating panelling dated 1936 on brass plaque), include canopied dias and door surrounds with pulvinated friezes, modillioned cornices and pediments, panelled dado with dentilled rail. Commemorative plaque in entrance lobby records the Kingsway improvement of 1901-6 with arms in relief and engraved plans of seafront. Undergoing renovation at time of resurvey.

Listing NGR: TA3076008596

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

164446

Legacy System:

LBS

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