Alston Town Hall is a municipal building in Front Street,

Alston, Cumbria Alston is a town in Cumbria, England, within the civil parish of Alston Moor on the River South Tyne. It shares the title of the 'highest market town in England', at about above sea level, with Buxton, Derbyshire. Despite its altitude, the town ...

, England. The town hall, which is currently used as a public library, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The construction of the building was an initiative by the locally-born industrial chemist,

Hugh Lee Pattinson Hugh Lee Pattinson FRS (25 December 1796 – 11 November 1858) was an English industrial chemist. He was also an entrepreneur, sharing the risk of major industrial developments with famous ironmaster Isaac Lowthian Bell and cable manufacturer Ro ...

, to create an events venue in the town. It was built and financed by a specially formed company for which he was one of the largest subscribers. The site chosen was a large rectangular piece of land known as the Vicarage Croft, which was donated to the company by the trustees of Greenwich Hospital. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Pattinson in 1857. It was designed by Alfred Burdakin Higham of

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, built in

rubble masonry Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an inn ...

at a cost of £2,000 and completed in 1858. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Front Street; the third bay from the left was formed by a four-stage clock tower with an arched doorway in the first stage, a two-light

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed and transomed window in the second stage, a small rectangular window in the third stage and a square

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

with clock faces in the fourth stage: the tower was surmounted by a

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

-shaped roof. The second and fourth bays were gabled and the fourth bay featured a large four-light mullioned and transomed window with

tracery Tracery is an architecture, architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of Molding (decorative), moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the s ...

: the window was flanked by niches. Internally, the principal rooms were the main assembly hall, a courtroom, facilities for the local mechanics' institute and a reading room. Following significant population growth, largely associated with the status of Alston as a market town, the area became an

rural district Rural districts were a type of local government area – now superseded – established at the end of the 19th century in England, Wales, and Ireland for the administration of predominantly rural areas at a level lower than that of the Ad ...

with the town hall as its headquarters in 1894. The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of the rural district council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

Eden District Council Eden may refer to: *Garden of Eden, the "garden of God" described in the Book of Genesis Places and jurisdictions Canada * Eden, Ontario * Eden High School Middle East * Eden, Lebanon, a city and former bishopric * Camp Eden, Iraq Oc ...

which was formed in 1974. The building subsequently became home to the local

tourist information office A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visi ...

and also accommodated a branch of the

Trustee Savings Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

until the late 1980s, while the local

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

, which had relocated to the Market Place, returned to the town hall in 2008.

Notes

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1858 City and town halls in Cumbria Alston, Cumbria Grade II listed buildings in Cumbria

History

See also

Notes

References