Town Hall
TOWN HALL, DALTON SQUARE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1194923
- Date first listed:
- 22-Dec-1953
- List Entry Name:
- Town Hall
- Statutory Address:
- TOWN HALL, DALTON SQUARE
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-02-18
- Reference:
- IOE01/03213/30
- Rights:
- © Mr Charles Satterly. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1194923
- Date first listed:
- 22-Dec-1953
- List Entry Name:
- Town Hall
- Statutory Address 1:
- TOWN HALL, DALTON SQUARE
- Statutory Address 2:
- TOWN HALL, GEORGE STREET
- Statutory Address 3:
- TOWN HALL, THURNHAM STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- TOWN HALL, DALTON SQUARE
- Statutory Address:
- TOWN HALL, GEORGE STREET
- Statutory Address:
- TOWN HALL, THURNHAM STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Lancashire
- District:
- Lancaster (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SD 47865 61552
Details
LANCASTER
SD4761NE DALTON SQUARE 1685-1/7/110 (South side) 22/12/53 Town Hall
GV II*
Town hall. 1906-9. By Edward Mountford, with exterior stone carving by Gilbert Seale and woodwork by Waring and Gillow. Sandstone ashlar, with steel, brick, and clinker ash concrete used structurally. Slate roofs. Large rectangular plan, with the principal front facing north towards Dalton Square, the west elevation to Thurnham Street, and the south elevation, with the entrance to the Ashton Hall, facing George Street. Edwardian Baroque style. 2 and 3 storeys, above a basement. The windows are glazing bar sashes. The entrance front is of 11 bays with a hexastyle portico of giant unfluted Ionic columns raised on sandstone steps. The tympanum of the pediment is filled by limestone figurative sculpture: in the centre is seated King Edward VII with sceptre and orb. The ground-floor masonry is rusticated and the round-arched doorway is flanked by round-headed niches. Above the balustraded parapet the clock tower is visible, rising behind the roof of the front range. Above the cornice of its lowest stage are aedicules facing each cardinal direction, with Tuscan columns. Across each corner angle is a short entablature supported by paired columns. Above the clock stage is a ribbed stone dome with a central finial. The long east and west facades are articulated by centrepieces treated as porticoes of engaged columns and triangular pediments, and by segmental pediments towards their outer ends. The south facade has at its centre 3 round-arched doorways to the Ashton Hall. Above are 2 pairs of Tuscan columns in antis, the lower part of the recess being filled between the columns by stonework pierced by round window openings. INTERIOR: the entrance hall contains a marble staircase rising to the principal rooms on the first floor. Spanish red marble is used in the lining of the main corridors on the ground floor, which contains, near the centre of the building, the former Magistrates' Courtroom. This has timber-panelled walls, a magistrates' bench, a dock with direct access to cells below, and has a saucer dome and top lighting. Across the front of the building at first-floor level is a suite of inter-connecting rooms divided by vertically-sliding timber screens: the Banqueting Chamber, Reception Room, and Mayor's Parlour. The walls are lined with panelling of Austrian oak and ceiled with segmental stucco tunnel vaults. The Mayor's Parlour contains a bolection-moulded marble fireplace, and an overmantel with a portrait of Lady Ashton. Swedish green marble is used to line the principal corridors on the first floor. The Council Chamber is lined with timber panelling, with engaged Corinthian columns, and has apsidal ends, a glazed saucer dome, and benches forming an oval. The Ashton Hall has a segmental vaulted ceiling, and galleries on 3 sides. At the west end is the stage, with an organ in an oak case carved with the Arms of Lancaster, raised on 4 pairs of unfluted Doric columns.
Listing NGR: SD4786561552
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 383141
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 06-Jun-2026 at 10:18:43.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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