Summary
Pair of houses and town hall. Numbers 17 and 19, of 1837 to 1838, town hall of 1862 to designs by J D Jee of Liverpool with substantial refurbishment to the concert hall in 1875 to 1878 by Lockwood and Mawson. Numbers 17 and 19 altered to form a suite of offices for the town hall between the late 1950s and 1962, and refurbished as a restaurant in the C21. The town hall has a large museum annexe of 1973, WC block of 2015, and a major restoration and redevelopment of 2019 to 2021.
Reasons for Designation
17 and 19 High Street, of 1837 to 1838, and the Town Hall, of 1862, now interconnected internally, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as an early-C19 unified pair of townhouses with a handsome, three-storey front elevation in good-quality ashlar stone, retaining the wide central entrance to a former carriageway through the building;
* as an imposing neo-Palladian Town Hall with a full-height central porticoed entrance incorporating a first-floor columned and balustraded balcony, constructed in good-quality ashlar stone;
* the first-floor Council Chamber has ornate detailing and is fitted with high-quality oak fixtures and fittings by the firm of Robert Thompson of Kilburn (1961), including furniture and wall panelling with the Skipton coat of arms, and incorporating a hidden door into an adjacent former mayor’s parlour in numbers 17 and 19 High Street;
* the original concert hall was substantially refurbished by Lockwood and Mawson in 1875 to 1878, who designed the impressive interior with enriched coffered and deeply coved ceiling, panelled and pilastered walls, and pedimented doorcases.
Historic interest:
* the purpose-built Town Hall has a long-standing role as the seat of local power and municipal activity, continuing to this day as the seat of the Town Council and a cultural hub with the recently refurbished concert hall and redesigned Craven Museum;
* the Town Hall and pair of former townhouses stand in a prominent location in the centre of the historic town where they contribute significantly to the character of the streetscape, forming a short row with 15 High Street and standing in close proximity to other listed buildings.
History
The pair of former houses and town hall stand in a short row, together with number 15, on the east side of the northern end of High Street.
NUMBERS 17 AND 19: abutting the coeval number 15, the former pair of houses were constructed on the site of an earlier property, a single-storied building used as the town’s post office, and across an earlier thoroughfare between the post office and a vicarage to the south (later replaced by the town hall). A wide, central carriageway, known as the ‘Big Entry’ was inserted through the ground floor to allow access to the rear of the building. The Castle Estate ledgers of 1853 state that ‘the present property was erected upon the site of one old house in 1837’ and in the rear elevation the voussoirs of the segmental arch of the carriageway are inscribed 1838 (now worn and barely legible).
The 1841 census does not appear to show anyone living at the two properties, but by 1851 number 17 was occupied by Thomas Mitchell, a wine and spirit merchant, his wife, young son and two servants. He was in business with his brother-in-law Robert Birtwhistle and the 1:1056 Ordnance Survey map published in 1852 shows that the majority of the burgage plot to the rear, which was owned by the northern property and accessed through the carriageway, contained a crane and range of ancillary buildings likely to have been used by the business. The Mitchell family remained at the property for several decades and by 1881 the son, William Mitchell, had taken over the running of the wine and spirit business. The Knowle family were occupants in 1901, but the property was apparently not lived in by 1911.
In 1851 number 19 was occupied by Jane Parkinson, an annuitant, her daughter and a servant, but by 1861 the property was being used as the premises of the Yorkshire Banking Company as well as the bank manager’s residence, with John Armitstead, the bank manager, living with the Bells, his brother-in-law’s family. In 1871 and 1881 the bank manager was Robert Foster Parker. By 1891 the bank had moved to new premises and Jane Cooper, of independent means, was living here. After her death in 1893, John William Broughton, architect, surveyor and land agent, moved his offices into the property. The 1901 census showed that he also lived here with his wife and a domestic servant, but by 1911 the property was also uninhabited. During the inter-war period, the property was used as offices by Knowles and Harrison, a firm of solicitors, and John W Broughton, land agent and valuer.
Subsequently, by 1950 the two properties had been incorporated into the 1862 town hall abutting the south gable wall. Between the late 1950s and 1962 internal openings were made on the ground and first floors, the latter directly connecting the mayor’s parlour in number 19 to the council chamber. Additional structural alterations were made to unify numbers 17 and 19 into a single suite of offices, including the infilling of the wide carriageway and insertion of a new staircase in 1962 to replace the separate domestic staircases and cellar accesses, which were removed.
In the C21 the building was refurbished as a restaurant, interconnecting with the town hall entrance hall on the ground floor.
TOWN HALL: the neo-Palladian town hall was built in 1862 to designs by J D Jee of Liverpool with a front range of offices and the town council chamber and a single-storey link to an angled, large public concert hall to the rear. The building was intended to make an income and was funded by a group of shareholders who formed a private company called the Skipton Building Company. The official opening was marked by a concert on 21 November 1862.
Between 1875 and 1878 there was a substantial refurbishment of the concert hall and lobby by Bradford architects Lockwood and Mawson. They designed a more impressive interior including a higher tier of windows and elaborate plaster ceiling described in the Craven Herald as ‘a beautiful enrichment of plaster work, whilst the old beamed roof has been replaced by a magnificently moulded ceiling of stucco’. The plasterer was a Mr Dixon, an expert who had also worked on the architects’ new City Temple in Holborn, London, in 1874. At an unknown date in the late C19, the council chamber was also altered and enlarged, with a new decorative plaster ceiling and moulded cornice.
In the 1890s local government was significantly reorganised and in 1895 the town hall was sold to the newly formed Skipton Urban District Council. A cast-iron and glazed canopy was placed in front of the main entrance in 1899 (removed in 1956).
The original platform at the east end of the concert hall, with two doorways to performers’ retiring rooms behind, was replaced with a proscenium-arch stage in the 1920s. The inter-war period also saw the first extension to the building to provide more court facilities. The south side entrance was replaced by a deeper two-storey extension subsuming the original single-storey link with a larger range.
The council chamber was refurbished in 1961 by Robert Thompson of Kilburn (‘Mouseman Thompson’) including oak panelling, a platform, lockers, benches, tables, chairs and curtain boxes. The panelling concealed two original fireplaces and incorporated a door through to number 19.
In 1973 a large, steel-framed annexe was built on the north side of the concert hall with a circulation space, ground-floor kitchen and supper room and new premises on the first floor for the Craven Museum (previously housed in Skipton Library). A new WC block was also built on the south side of the link range, replaced in 2015 by a new entrance and curved WC block.
The Local Government Act of 1972, which came into force in 1974, saw the abolition of the old Skipton Urban District Council and also Skipton Rural District Council, which were replaced by the new Craven District Council (replaced by North Yorkshire Council in April 2023) and Skipton Town Council. The latter, after operating from a number of different buildings, moved back into the Town Hall in March 2016.
From 2019 to 2021 there was a major restoration and redevelopment of the building, alongside a reinterpretation of the Craven Museum collections and redesign of the museum. Extensions to the rear of the concert hall were demolished and a new museum store, research, education and backstage rooms were built, and the annexe was reconfigured. The concert hall, including the decorative ceiling, was restored and the proscenium arch with fixed stage was removed and replaced with a flexible, demountable stage. New lifts were also installed at the front and rear of the extended annexe.
The town hall continues to be the seat of Skipton Town Council and also now operates as a cultural hub providing a multi-arts and heritage space for the Craven area.
Details
Pair of houses and town hall. Numbers 17 and 19 1837 to 1838, town hall 1862 to designs by J D Jee of Liverpool with substantial refurbishment to the concert hall in 1875 to 1878 by Lockwood and Mawson. Numbers 17 and 19 altered to form a suite of offices for the town hall between the late 1950s and 1962 and refurbished as a restaurant in the C21. The town hall has a large museum annexe of 1973, WC block of 2015, and a major restoration and redevelopment of 2019 to 2021.
MATERIALS: the buildings are constructed of coursed and ashlar sandstone and coursed rubble gritstone with stone slate roofs. The concert hall is roofed in slate. The 1973 annexe is constructed of rendered brickwork and the 2019 to 2021 rear extension is coursed gritstone and rendered brickwork.
PLAN: numbers 17 to 19 are a pair of houses of three storeys with basements. The building has a wide, central entrance formerly leading to a covered carriageway between the two properties, now infilled and converted to a single property; the commercial business presently also occupies two ground-floor bays in the adjacent town hall with a doorway through the south gable wall. The town hall has a rectangular, two-storey and basement front range with a central entrance and stair hall with rooms to each side, a large rectangular concert hall set at an angle to the rear with two-storey extensions wrapping around the north and east sides and attached to the front range by a lower, angled link block with a side entrance and projecting, curved, flat-roofed WC block.
The pair of former houses and town hall stand in a short row, together with number 15, on the east side of the northern end of High Street.
NUMBERS 17 AND 19
EXTERIOR: the front elevation faces west onto High Street and abuts number 15 on the left and the town hall on the right. It is of three storeys and five bays. It is constructed of coursed ashlar stone with a plinth, sill bands on each floor and a moulded cornice. The corners have pilasters with capitals of double scrolls supporting a square block relief-carved with a wreath. The stone slate roof has a higher ridge than number 15 and there is a long ridge stack between the third and fourth bays and another to the right-hand, south gable. The wide, central doorway (position of the former covered carriageway) has stone pilasters and entablature with two stone steps and panelled double doors. To each side are two tall, rectangular windows with moulded stone architraves. On the first floor are five tall, rectangular windows with five shorter windows on the second floor. The windows over the doorway have moulded architraves and the rest have wedge lintels. The windows all have renewed sashes of four horizontal panes over eight or six horizontal panes.
The rear, east elevation is constructed of roughly coursed rubblestone. In the centre of the ground floor is the blocked carriageway with a segmental arch of voussoirs, the middle voussoir inscribed 1838. Immediately above is a rectangular, single-light window with a square-cut stone frame which has been reduced in height with joints and a stone lintel in the wall above, and a tall, rectangular second-floor window over. There are two bays to each side with stepped windows of varying sizes, all with square-cut stone frames and a variety of casement and sash window frames. On the right-hand side the fourth-bay, first-floor window has been altered to a doorway with an external metal spiral fire escape.
INTERIOR: a modern, full-height staircase with a metal balustrade rises to the rear of the central bay formerly occupied by the covered carriageway with rooms to each side – and now two further ground-floor bays on the south side located within the town hall with which it connects internally on the ground and first floors. Many rooms have either been opened out to provide larger spaces or subdivided to provide ancillary spaces such as WCs with the whole ground floor and parts of the second floor refurbished for use as a restaurant.
Many of the windows have moulded architraves. The front ground-floor windows and four of the five first-floor windows have panelled soffits and jambs with panelling beneath the windows where visible. There is a partial moulded cornice on the first floor and in the south-west corner (former position of mayor’s parlour) there is fake panelling.
TOWN HALL
EXTERIOR: the symmetrical front elevation faces west onto High Street abutting number 19 on the left and returning down Jerry Croft on the right. It is of two high storeys with a three-bay, full-height, central portico and two bays to each side. It is constructed of coursed ashlar stone with a plinth, quoins, moulded sill band to the ground-floor windows, moulded band between the ground and first floors, moulded sill string to the first-floor windows, moulded cornice and balustraded parapet. The portico is raised on four shallow steps with three round-arched doorways with recessed doors, paired outer pilasters and engaged Composite columns on raised bases supporting an entablature. At first-floor level is a stone balustraded balcony with four Composite columns and two columns to the returns supporting an entablature and triangular pediment. To the rear of the balcony is a central doorway with a triangular pediment flanked by two windows with moulded canopies, The upper half of the doorway and the windows have two-over-two pane unhorned sashes, with panelling to the lower half of the doorway. On each side of the portico, both floors have two two-over-two pane unhorned sashes with moulded stone architraves and those on the first floor also have segmental pediments.
The right-hand, south return is of four bays and is constructed of coursed gritstone blocks. The moulded sill band and string, moulded floor band and cornice are continued round, with quoins only to the left-hand corner. On both floors are four tall, rectangular windows with deep stone lintels and twelve-over-twelve pane unhorned sashes. Beneath are four louvred basement windows with deep stone lintels. The single visible bay of the rear, east elevation has a first-floor, two-over-two pane sash window with a projecting stone sill and a deep lintel. Below a similar window has been converted to a doorway.
The two-storey, four-bay link block is set back and faces south onto Jerry Croft with the first bay slightly angled in. It is constructed of coursed gritstone blocks. The four first-floor windows have projecting stone sills and deep lintels with eight-over-eight pane horned sashes. The ground floor has a recessed, modern entrance doorway to the first bay and an external, modern, curved metal-sheet WC pod obscures the rest of the floor.
Abutting the right-hand side of the link block is the tall, eight-bay concert hall. It is built of coursed gritstone blocks with pilasters separating the bays and a dentil cornice. The sixth bay has a small, stone porch with a lean-to slate roof and a door in the left-hand return with three stone steps up and a small platform with metal railings to the outer edges. The outer, south elevation has a central window with a projecting stone sill and a deep lintel with an eight-over-eight pane sash frame. The other bays have high and tall round-headed windows with tracery frames, that to the first bay partly obscured by the WC pod. All the bays have lunette windows at clerestory level. Set back and attached by a narrow, opaque glazed link is a modern two-storey and two-bay, flat-roofed block of coursed stone blocks with a wide, recessed window on the ground floor and two first-floor windows.
The modern block returns along Museum Walk with irregular fenestration. At the right-hand end, it is attached to a two-storey, flat-roofed, rendered block, which wraps around to return along the rear, north elevation of the concert hall. At the west end is a projecting, semi-circular stair bay, also rendered.
INTERIOR: the front range has a large entrance and stair hall flanked by ground-floor rooms (those on the north side now used by numbers 17 and 19) with a first-floor council chamber on the north side of the landing and rooms on the south side. There are moulded door and window architraves throughout.
The entrance and stair hall have an open-well staircase to the rear with an outer ramped timber balustrade with squared and capped newel posts, moulded handrail and turned balusters with decorative step ends, the balustrade continued along the first-floor landing. There is a patterned moulded plaster ceiling over.
The full-depth council chamber on the first floor has a deep, moulded cornice and patterned moulded plaster ceiling with five glass chandeliers. The room is fitted out with oak fixtures and fittings by Robert Thompson of Kilburn (1961), including dado panelling and rail to the south, east and west end walls, the latter incorporating radiator boxes, and half-height panelling with cornice to the north wall with a higher central section with cresting between two former chimney breasts. The central panelling has a panel with Skipton’s relief-carved coat of arms, and to the left, a doorway in the panelling led into the former mayor’s parlour in number 19. In front is a dais incorporating a long, panelled desk for the mayor with a lower dais to each side with a panelled desk, and faced by a long panelled bench curved in at each end (complemented by individual chairs with a grander chair for the mayor). There is a fielded four-panelled door with moulded architraves at each end of the south wall and the east and west end walls both have two windows with moulded oak curtain boxes.
The grand, rectangular concert hall has a panelled dado with panelled bays above, or tall, round-headed windows to the south wall with moulded and enriched impost bands and heads, the bays separated by pilasters with composite capitals. Above is a dentil and modillion cornice and an enriched, coffered ceiling with deep coving. It has larger panels to the central spine with alternating, enriched circular ventilator grilles and ceiling roses with light fittings, flanked by smaller, square panels with relief rosettes. The coving has alternating lunettes and enriched spandrels. The lunettes have relief medallions containing the monogram STH (Skipton Town Hall) over the bays of the north, east and west walls in place of the windows in the south wall. The north and south walls have opposing doorways in the third bay from the east end. Both doorways have doorcases with panelled pilasters, console brackets and blocks supporting a segmental-arched pediment, that to the south, external doorway enriched with foliate details and a roundel containing a lion’s head, and double, panelled doors.
