County Hall is a municipal building on Leicester Road (the A50) in Glenfield, Leicestershire. It is the headquarters of

Leicestershire County Council Leicestershire County Council is the county council for the English non-metropolitan county of Leicestershire. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888. The county is divided into 52 electoral divisions, which return a to ...

History

In the first half of the 20th century, meetings of

were held at the

Assembly Rooms In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th century Britain, 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done ...

in Hotel Street, Leicester, while County Offices were established at No.1 Grey Friars in Leicester in 1936. After deciding that this arrangement was inadequate for their needs, county leaders chose to procure a new county headquarters: the site they selected at Glenfield had previously been open land which they considered was a more economical solution than a city centre site. Construction on the new building began in spring 1965. It was designed by the in-house architectural team in the Brutalist style, was built at a cost of £1.4 million and was completed in November 1967. The design for the five-storey building involved continuous bands of glazing with concrete panelling above and below: a concrete mural depicting the River Soar by Tony Hollaway was unveiled at that time. An extension to accommodate a computer suite opened in 1970, and the Rutland Building extension was completed in 1974. The principal room was the council chamber which was panelled with Japanese

teak Teak (''Tectona grandis'') is a tropical hardwood tree species in the family Lamiaceae. It is a large, deciduous tree that occurs in mixed hardwood forests. ''Tectona grandis'' has small, fragrant white flowers arranged in dense clusters ( pan ...

and Bombay rosewood. Queen Elizabeth II made an official visit to County Hall during a tour of Leicestershire, on 17 November 1989. A memorial to commemorate local people from the county who had died since the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

was unveiled on 9 November 2012: the memorial, entitled "Stand Easy", was designed by

Kenny Hunter Kenny Hunter (born 1962) is a Scottish sculptor. He lives and works in Edinburgh. Between 2015 and 2018, he was programme director of sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art where he now continues to work part-time as a lecturer in Fine Art, Sculp ...

from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and comprised four bronze statues which were modelled on soldiers from

Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College (stylised as Welbeck – The Defence Sixth Form College), formerly named and often referred to as simply Welbeck College, was an independent, selective sixth form college in Leicestershire, England. While run a ...

. Works of art in the building include a painting by

John Ferneley John E. Ferneley (18 May 1782 Thrussington, Leicestershire – 1860 Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire), was an English painter who specialised in portraying sporting horses and hunting scenes. Although his rendition of horses was stylised, he is ...

depicting the Melton Mowbray Horse Fair. The building also contains a large collection of modern art collected by a former Director of Education, Stewart C. Mason. The Lord-Lieutenant's Young Person of the Year Awards are held annually at County Hall.

References

{{Commons category Buildings and structures in Leicestershire G Government buildings completed in 1967