Berkhamsted Civic Centre is a municipal building in the High Street in

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England. The structure accommodates the offices and meeting place of Berkhamsted Town Council.

History

In the 19th century, the main municipal building in the town was

Berkhamsted Town Hall Berkhamsted Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. It is a Grade II listed building. History The current building was commissioned to replace a 16th century town hall in Church Lane which sti ...

. After it was formed in 1898, Great Berkhampstead Urban District Council (as it was initially called) met in the local workhouse. In 1908 the council bought at auction the premises of a local building contractor, William Nash & Son, for the sum of £2,300. These premises comprised a house facing High Street, behind which was a former Wesleyan Chapel (by then used as a workshop), with a large yard and other outbuildings. These premises were converted to serve as the council's offices and meeting place, with the former chapel becoming the council chamber. In the early 1930s, after the council decided it needed more office space, it acquired the adjacent fishmonger's shop and demolished both buildings. The new civic centre was designed by the council surveyor, John Hadfield, in the Neo-Georgian style, built in red brick with stone dressings and was officially opened by the chairman of the council, Councillor Walter Pitkin, on 14 October 1938. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the High Street; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a round headed entrance with brick

voussoir A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...

s, a keystone,

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

gates and a deeply recessed doorway inside. There was a wrought iron balconet and French door on the first floor, flanked by

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s supporting an open

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

, while the other bays were fenestrated by

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s on both floors. Internally, the principal rooms were a courtroom on the ground floor and a council meeting room on the first floor. The council maintained garaging behind the civic centre for the local fire engines until 1969, when the fire service moved to Castle Street. The civic centre continued to serve as the local seat of government until the enlarged Dacorum Borough Council was formed in 1974. The courtroom was subsequently converted into an assembly hall and the council meeting room became the offices and meeting place of Berkhamsted Town Council. In the 1980s and 1990s, the civic centre was a significant events venue: the

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

Marillion Marillion are a British rock music, rock band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becomin ...

, performed their first concert there in 1980, the

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

singer,

Elaine Delmar Elaine Delmar (born 13 September 1939) is a British singer and actress, with a long career in stage acting, music recording and concert performances. Born in Harpenden, she is the daughter of Jamaican jazz trumpeter Leslie "Jiver" Hutchinson. Af ...

, performed there in 1986, and the American jazz

tenor saxophonist The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

, Scott Hamilton, took part in a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

concert, which was broadcast from there, in 1998. Also, the Master of the Queen's Music, Malcolm Williamson, delivered at least one premiere of his works at the civic centre in the 1980s. A wooden sign bearing the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

of the town was presented by the Berkhamsted Citizens Association and erected on the pavement outside the civic centre in 1983. The garaging behind the civic centre, previously used by the fire service, was converted into a museum store for Dacorum Heritage in 1994.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1938 City and town halls in Hertfordshire Buildings and structures in Berkhamsted