The Guildhall
THE GUILDHALL, MARKET STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1266739
- Date first listed:
- 14-Jun-1954
- List Entry Name:
- The Guildhall
- Statutory Address:
- THE GUILDHALL, MARKET STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2002-09-08
- Reference:
- IOE01/08168/27
- Rights:
- © Mr Ron Holmes. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1266739
- Date first listed:
- 14-Jun-1954
- List Entry Name:
- The Guildhall
- Statutory Address 1:
- THE GUILDHALL, MARKET 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:
- THE GUILDHALL, MARKET STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Poole
- National Grid Reference:
- SZ 01000 90562
Details
POOLE
SZ0190NW MARKET STREET 958-1/16/115 (North East side) 14/06/54 The Guildhall
GV II*
Formerly known as: Old Guildhall MARKET PLACE. Guildhall, with partly open market on ground floor. Dated 1761. For John Gultson and Col. Thomas Calcraft, MPs for Poole, their names inscribed on tablets on the returns; restored 1994. Brick with limestone and stucco dressings and a hipped slate roof with flat leaded top and cupola. Mid Georgian style. Rectangular plan. 2 storeys and attic; 7-window range. 3-window front has rusticated quoins, plat band and flat cornice, with a pediment raised at the corners to form side parapets. A projecting Tuscan portico with front balustrade, antae and pediment, above a rusticated base with a blocked, keyed round arch, with fine curved steps and iron railings rising each side to the portico; first-floor keyed segmental-arched windows with 6/6-pane sashes, a clock in the pediment with a keyed architrave, and a sundial with a gnomon and number XII at the apex of the pediment. The sides have a formerly open ground-floor arcade connected by impost blocks, and first-floor keyed windows as the front. Rear Orchard Street elevation has 2 windows and 2 arches. Domed ridge cupola with concave corners, wide modillion eaves cornice and round-arched windows with rusticated architraves. INTERIOR: the Guildhall includes a first-floor council chamber with a rear platform and doorway with architrave and console pediment, beneath a coat of arms of Queen Victoria, a central right-hand fireplace, masked externally by a blind window, with enriched surround and an overmantel with broken pediment over an eared panel containing pre-1603 Royal Arms. Ceiling divided by moulded bands, central lantern and enriched coved cornice. The ground floor has cast-iron columns along the centre. A very fine example of a Georgian guildhall (manifesting the C18 wealth of Poole), after which the Custom House (qv) was modelled, and elegantly closing off the important view up Market Street. The ground-floor formerly contained an open market. (RCHME: County of Dorset (South East): London: 1970-: 202; Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Newman J: Dorset: London: 1972-: 219).
Listing NGR: SZ0095690487
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 412555
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Inventory of Dorset II South East, (1970), 202
Pevsner, N, Newman, J, The Buildings of England: Dorset, (1972), 219
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 11-Jun-2026 at 23:20:13.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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