Town Hall

Details

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 HIGH STREET 859-1/6/195 (West side) 04/03/52 No.18 Town Hall

GV II*

Town hall and covered market space. Built 1788 at cost of »1200, through ".....the liberality of Sir William Codrington, one of the late worthy representatives in Parliament ...."; enlarged to include police station, cells and fire station c1840, and altered 1891 by Medland and Son. Cotswold ashlar, brick, slate roofs. PLAN: the first section was set back from High Street, with an open aisled Cornmarket in front. This building had a ballroom across the full width at the first floor, with a central room to the rear into a bold bow, all approached by a fine geometrical staircase in the NW corner. It still remains, including its original elevations, and is fronted by the mid C19 market hall in one large single-storey aisled space with glazed roof. EXTERIOR: the 3-bay street front has arched 12-pane sashes with radial bars and margin-panes on stone cills to brackets are set in panels contained in a moulded arch with central decorated console keystones and pilaster responds. Central opening similar, containing a pair of panelled doors under a radial fanlight, and all set in Roman Doric tetrastyle temple front, the outer columns as square responds, with full entablature and steep pediment containing clock and supporting figures. All set forward from short section of plain wall with attic, and central arched stone bell turret to low pedimented capping. Stone urns each side of the central attic. Behind the market hall is the C18 ashlar frontage of the main building, partly concealed, but retaining, on 3 sandstone steps with nosings, an open screen of 4 Doric columns to wide openings with flat entablature; above the market hall roof is the pedimented ashlar front with 3 large sashes, the centre one brought down to floor level, to serve as access to the former balcony. The pediment has a moulded stone coping, and the gable ends are coped in brick-on-edge. 3 stacks, all cropped; 2 on the rear slope of the roof, and one at the ridge. The rear, in brickwork, has a full-height canted hipped bay in 2 storeys, with large 12-pane sashes, but 4-pane sashes in the bay, and 16-pane at the ground floor, with a small 9-pane central sash to the bay where there was formerly a doorway. All openings are to good brick voussoirs, and there is a 3-brick string course below the blocking and a coped parapet. To the left a panelled door in a pedimented doorcase, and partly concealed by later additions, gives to the staircase. At the right-hand end a very narrow, full-height service wing projects boldly forward. INTERIOR: the early building has many original fielded-panel doors in moulded architraves. The first-floor ballroom is simply detailed, with fireplace, dado panelling, cornice, and 2 Rococo mirrors. The centre back room, or Mayor's Parlour, has fine moulded cornice, dado panelling, an Adamesque fire surround, 6-panel decorated door, and embossed wallpaper with local views. The corresponding ground-floor room was formerly the Court Room, and is ceiled with a 'grid' of deep plain plastered beams. The geometrical stone staircase, approached through a plain arch on stone flagged floor, has plain iron balustrade to swept rail. Stone stair continues down to basement, with barred openings to former cells. The market hall has an inset timber-panelled and glazed lobby, surmounted by a clock turret. The 5-bay central glazed roof, hipped at the inner end, has composite queen-post trusses with iron rods, on deep longitudinal beams with panelled sides and intrados. The aisles are similarly roofed with composite trusses. The building, which replaced an earlier town hall at The Cross, has a street front characteristic of mid C19 market buildings. The original frontage of the 1788 structure can just be seen from High Street above the pediment of the market building, and is also handsomely detailed. Despite some ground-floor adaptation to current use, the interiors remain little changed. The cells in the basement reflect the use of the building by the local police from 1839. (Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 372).

Listing NGR: SO8929232835

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

376778

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Verey, D, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire 2 The Vale and The Forest of Dean, (1970), 372

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.