Town Hall
TOWN HALL, MARKET PLACE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1297550
- Date first listed:
- 20-Sept-1972
- List Entry Name:
- Town Hall
- Statutory Address:
- TOWN HALL, MARKET PLACE
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-04-08
- Reference:
- IOE01/03242/31
- Rights:
- © Mr Alan Bradley. Source: Historic England Archive
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Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1297550
- Date first listed:
- 20-Sept-1972
- List Entry Name:
- Town Hall
- Statutory Address 1:
- TOWN HALL, 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:
- TOWN HALL, MARKET PLACE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- County Durham (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Bishop Auckland
- National Grid Reference:
- NZ 21157 30135
Details
BISHOP AUCKLAND
NZ2130 MARKET PLACE 634-1/8/96 Town Hall 20/09/72
GV II*
Town hall and market, with reading room and assembly room, originally incorporating 2 shops. In process of conversion to community centre and library. 1860-62. By JP Jones. For Bishop Auckland Town Hall and Market Company Ltd. Design modified by John Johnstone of Newcastle. C20 internal alterations. MATERIALS: coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, and Welsh slate roof with bands of fishscale. PLAN: Gothic Revival style. Symmetrical. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 6x8 windows. Paired 2-centred arches in central bays have wide pilasters with elaborate foliage capitals. Left arch blocked and containing 2-light window with 2-centred heads in stone lintel. 3 large moulded stone brackets over pilasters support first-floor pierced stone balcony. Former shops flanking entrance each have 4-panelled double doors and overlights flanked by paired windows, all with shouldered heads and nookshafts. First-floor string. Aprons and sloping sills to tall first-floor windows which have pointed arches and plate tracery, with 2 shouldered lights below transom formed by impost string on which dripmoulds rest. Central pair open onto balcony. Eaves corbel table. Steeply pitched hipped roofs over outer pairs of bays linked by ridge of principal roof with high central octagonal louvred lantern, with 8 lucarnes at base of tall spirelet. Gabled clock faces in east and west fronts of base to lantern. Tall gabled 2-light dormers in main roof have roundels in gable peaks; lancets in 3 stepped lucarnes in flanking hipped roofs which have ornamental cast-iron crestings. Long left return in similar style but without central emphasis. INTERIOR shows ribbed quadripartite vaults, with leaf terminals, to entrance arches. Central covered market hall has small shop units opening off, most altered but some with cast-iron piers visible, and one with small corner cast-iron fire surround. Main and subsidiary stairs have iron balusters with hollow-moulded corners supporting moulded handrail, wreathed at foot on fluted newel. Hall along front on first floor has wave-moulded frieze and hammer-beam roof, shallow north apse with fluted Corinthian pilasters and shallow segmental head to proscenium arch. Proscenium arch in front, c1960 is to be removed in current restoration. Council chamber inserted over covered market has borough arms in stained glass of windows high in wall. Interior being altered at time of survey (1991). (Builder: April 1860: 210-211; ; Views of Bishop Auckland 1860-67: UD/BA/238).
Listing NGR: NZ2115730135
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 385723
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
The Builder in April, (1860), 210-11
Other
Views of Bishop Auckland 1860-67,
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 10-Jun-2026 at 11:26:17.
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.