Blackpool Town Hall is a municipal building in Talbot Square,

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, England. The town hall is the headquarters of

Blackpool Council Blackpool Council is the local authority of the Borough of Blackpool, Lancashire, England. It is a unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additiona ...

which is the main governing body for the wider

Borough of Blackpool The Borough of Blackpool is a local government district with unitary authority status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Lancashire, England. It covers the large seaside town of Blackpool and includes notable suburbs such as South ...

. It 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 building was commissioned to replace an 18th-century town hall located just to the south of the current structure close to the old St John's Market. The new building, which was designed by Potts, Son and Hennings in the

Jacobean style The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign (1603–1625 in England) it is associated. At the start of James' reign ther ...

, was built on Talbot Square and completed in 1900. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the Talbot Square with the outer bays curving round to the sides; the central bay featured a five stage square

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

with the ground floor forming a portico with

Tuscan order The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but with u ...

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 and first floor forming a portico with

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

columns with a segmental pediment and a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

above. The ship's bell from HMS ''Foudroyant'', which was wrecked on Blackpool Sands in 1897, was recovered and placed in the town hall, when it opened. The murals in the council chamber, which were painted by J. R. Brown in 1901, portray, firstly, the marriage of

King Henry VII Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufo ...

(of Lancaster) to Princess Elizabeth (of York) in 1486, secondly, the surrender of the Jacobite rebels at Battle of Preston in 1715, and thirdly, the last charge of

King Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Batt ...

at Bosworth Field in 1485. The town hall became the headquarters of Blackpool County Borough in 1904 and, after a major fire in the 1930s, it was rebuilt and extended to the south to create a new building, designed by J. C. Robinson, in 1938. Following the completion of the works,

King George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of Ind ...

and Queen Elizabeth visited the building later in the year. Four stained glass windows in the council chamber, representing education, light industry, agriculture & sport, and recreation, which had suffered damage in the fire, were replaced in the 1940s. The

Princess Royal Princess Royal is a substantive title, style customarily (but not automatically) awarded by a United Kingdom, British monarch to their eldest daughter. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of th ...

made a visit to the town hall in 1958 and a

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

in the shape of the

galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships first used as armed cargo carriers by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries during the age of sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch War ...

Golden Hind ''Golden Hind'' was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. She was originally known as ''Pelican,'' but Drake renamed her mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Hat ...

'', which had been deemed unsafe, was removed from the roof of the building in February 1965. The building became the headquarters of Lancashire borough of Blackpool in 1974 before becoming the headquarters of the new unitary authority,

, in 1998. A stained-glass window, which had been set into the ceiling in the council chamber, was restored in August 2019.

References

{{reflist City and town halls in Lancashire Grade II listed buildings in Lancashire Government buildings completed in 1900 Buildings and structures in Blackpool