Doncaster Civic Office is a municipal building in Waterdale,

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

, England. The structure is the meeting place of

Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England, based at the Doncaster Civic Office in Waterdale, central Doncaster. It is one of four local authories in South Y ...

History

The first municipal building in the town had its origins in the ruins of the Church of St Mary Magdalene which was built in the Market Place in around 1130. Civic leaders acquired the old church in 1557 and converted the surviving chancel and nave into a town hall: the structure was rebuilt to a neoclassical design by William Lindley in 1786. Lindley's design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto the Market Place; the central section of three bays featured round headed openings on the ground floor, tall

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 the first floor and shorter sash windows on the second floor flanked, on the two upper floors, by

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

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 a

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 ...

. There was a figure depicting

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

at the apex of the pediment and

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...

s on either side of the pediment. In 1846 the civic leaders decided to demolish the old town hall and to erect a new guildhall: the site they selected for the new building, in Frenchgate, was occupied by a public house, the Angel Inn. The new structure was designed by John Butterfield, also in the neoclassical style, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone and was completed in 1848. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Frenchgate; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a

tetrastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

with

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

columns supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). All ...

ed pediment. Although it was 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 ...

, it was demolished by Doncaster Council in 1969 to make way for an extension to a

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

shop. After briefly being located at 1 Priory Place during the 1970s, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council relocated to modern offices at Copley House in Waterdale in the early 1980s, and then to Coal House, the former headquarters of the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

, in May 1992. As part of a wider regeneration scheme for the Waterdale area, the council decided to demolish their former offices at Coal House and to commission a new structure on the site of the old Waterdale Campus of

Doncaster College Doncaster College and University Centre is a further and higher education college based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is an operating division of the DN Colleges Group. History Origins The origin and identity of Doncaster Colleg ...

. The new building was designed by Cartwright Pickard in the International Style, built in glass and steel at a cost of £20 million and was completed in October 2012. The design involved a 5-storey rectangular tower block with 8 bays facing onto Waterdale: the southwest corner of the building, which was recessed, featured, on the ground floor, a glass doorway providing access from the new Sir Nigel Gresley Square, named after the railway engineer,

Sir Nigel Gresley Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley (19 June 1876 – 5 April 1941) was a British railway engineer. He was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Rail ...

. At that corner, on the upper floors, there was a display of 3,200 glazed

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

titles with the borough

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 ...

superimposed on the tiles. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber.

References

{{Commons category, Doncaster Civic Office Government buildings completed in 2012 City and town halls in South Yorkshire Buildings and structures in Doncaster