County Hall and Market House
COUNTY HALL, MARKET PLACE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1199601
- Date first listed:
- 19-Jan-1951
- List Entry Name:
- County Hall and Market House
- Statutory Address:
- COUNTY HALL, MARKET PLACE
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2000-07-08
- Reference:
- IOE01/02462/01
- Rights:
- © Mr M.J.F. Harrison. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1199601
- Date first listed:
- 19-Jan-1951
- List Entry Name:
- County Hall and Market House
- Statutory Address 1:
- COUNTY HALL, MARKET PLACE
- Statutory Address 2:
- MARKET HOUSE, MARKET PLACE
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:
- COUNTY HALL, MARKET PLACE
- Statutory Address:
- MARKET HOUSE, MARKET PLACE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Oxfordshire
- District:
- Vale of White Horse (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Abingdon on Thames
- National Grid Reference:
- SU 49785 97051
Details
SU 4997 ABINGDON MARKET PLACE
583/1/180 County Hall
(Market House)
19.01.1951
GV I
1678-1683. Ashlar. By Christopher Kempster, one of Wren's masons.
Woodwork by Avery Hobbs. Two storeys, cellars and attics, with a
square staircase tower on the south side. Four bays by two, faced
with fine ashlar, Burford stone to impost level of ground floor,
mostly Headington stone above. The Hall stands on a stylobate of
three steps. Open arcaded Market Hall on ground floor, Sessions Hall
on the first floor lighted by arched window in each bay. Giant
pilasters of two storeys support entablature and wooden eaves cornice
of lead roof. Roof has pedimented dormer window above each bay and a
baluwtraded flat frond which rises a cupola with a weathervane. The
grand order, the pilasters of the ground floor arcade, and the tower
square a plinths with a simple cavetto. The order has pedestals,
moulded bases, pilasters without entasis or fluting, and composite
capitals. Its entablature has a plain frieze and carries the
modillions of the wooden eaves cornice of roof, renewed in 1896.
The proportion of this order differ very slightly from the first design,
since the decayed stone was cut away in the restoration work before
1852.
Each bay of tile grand order embraces one arch of the Market Hall arcade.
The Keystones of the round arches bear sculptured masks with symbolical
headdressed. In their present form these date from 1853. The arcades
spring from plain pilasters with moulded imposts. Round headed windows
on first floor, moulded architraves, scrolled keystone with acanthus.
box stone used in the 1853 restoration. Also repaired in 1952. The
County Hall was tile scene of many great election struggles. A.M.
Drawings in Details 1, 69-71 and Architectural Review XIII (1903),
16 and VCH: Berks IV, 433.
The County Hall with Nos. 5 to 9 (consec) Market Place form a group
Listing NGR: SU4978997051
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 250413
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Ditchfield, P H, Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Berkshire, (1924), 433
Architectural Review in Architectural Review, Vol. 13, (1903), 16
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 22-Jun-2026 at 19:55:02.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.