Denton Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Street, Denton,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England. The town hall is the meeting place of Denton Town Council and is also used as a public library.

History

The building was originally commissioned as a public library and as lasting monument to celebrate for the

Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on 20 and 21 June 1887 to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. It was celebrated with a Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey, and a banquet to which ...

: the site chosen by civic leaders for the new building was open land to the west of Stockport Road. The foundation stone for the library was laid by Edward Joseph Sidebottom, a local landowner and photographer, on 28 April 1888. Designed by T. D. and J. Lindley in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, it was built in red brick with elements of stone facing and officially opened by Alderman Walton Smith, chairman of the Manchester Free Libraries Committee, on 7 September 1889. The building was located on a corner site, with its principal facades on Market Street and Albert Street; the design involved a

canted Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to: Language * Cant (language), a secret language * Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers * Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers * Shelta or the Cant, a lan ...

section at the junction of these two roads with a round headed window on the ground floor, a

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 ...

on the first floor and a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

above; there four bays along Market Street and five bays along Albert Street; the Albert Street elevation featured a round headed doorway with a

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

in the second bay from the right; both elevations had round headed

s on the first floor and gables above. After the free library had moved to Peel Street and Denton Urban District Council had been formed in 1894, the building was converted for municipal purposes by Joseph Clayton and was re-opened by the chairman of the council, Councillor Thomas Woolfenden, as Denton Town Hall on 6 March 1899. Internally, the principal room in the new building was the council chamber. The building became a centre of trade union activity in the hatting industry in the 1920s and

Thomas Mallalieu Thomas Mallalieu (c.1858 – 20 August 1935) was a British trade unionist. Mallalieu was born in Witton-le-Wear, County Durham. He worked as a felt hat maker and was involved in uniting various local unions into a national federation, accomp ...

, who had served as President of the General Federation of Trade Unions from 1918 to 1922 went on to chair Denton Urban District Council in 1924/25. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Denton Urban District Council but ceased to be local seat of government when the enlarged

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan countie ...

was formed in 1974. A blue plaque was placed on the side of the town hall to commemorate Denton becoming a

twin-town A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inter ...

to Montigny le Bretonneux, near Paris, France on 18 September 1993. A statue designed by John Cox and Escar UK Bronze, depicting a man doffing his Linney Hat, in tribute to the Denton hatting industry, was unveiled by Councillor Martin Wareing outside the town hall on 12 October 2005. The building was converted for library use again and re-opened as such in January 2015. It also became the home of the new Denton Town Council, which was formed from the old Denton District Assembly, in late 2016.

References

{{Buildings and structures in Tameside Government buildings completed in 1889 City and town halls in Greater Manchester Buildings and structures in Tameside Denton, Greater Manchester