Eccles Town Hall is a municipal building in Church Street,

Eccles, Greater Manchester Eccles () is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, west of Salford and west of Manchester, split by the M602 motorway and bordered by the Manchester Ship Canal to the south. The town is famous for the Eccles cake. ...

, England. The town hall was the headquarters of Eccles Borough Council until the council was abolished in 1974.

History

Shortly after it had been created in 1854, the local board of health established itself in some rented rooms in

Patricroft Patricroft is a suburb near Eccles, Greater Manchester, England. History Patricroft may derive its name from 'Pear-tree croft', or more likely, 'Patrick's Croft'. In 1836, Scottish engineer James Nasmyth, in partnership with Holbrook Gaskell, bu ...

. After civic leaders found these rooms inadequate, in the context of population growth associated with the expanding textile industry, they decided to procure a new town hall: the site they selected had been occupied by the old

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

in the town. Although cockfighting had been regarded as cruel by the early 19th century, it was still popular in Eccles at that time. The new building was designed by John Lowe in the Edwardian Baroque style, built in red brick by Moore and Sons and was officially opened on 3 November 1881. The building became the headquarters of Eccles Metropolitan Borough when it was formed in 1892. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the Church Street; the central section of five bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a 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 ...

on the ground floor flanked by two pairs of

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 ...

stone

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 stone

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 ...

with the inscription "Town Hall"; there were five round headed windows forming an arcade on the first floor, and at roof level there was a central

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 a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

(containing a Thwaites & Reed chiming clock), flanked by dormer windows with mansard roofs above. Initially, the principal room was the assembly hall; the building was extended to the rear to create a new council chamber and courtroom in 1899.

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

and Queen Mary visited the town hall in 1913 and Lord Derby encouraged local military recruitment by conducting a review of the 20th Battalion

Lancashire Fusiliers The Lancashire Fusiliers was a line infantry regiment of the British Army that saw distinguished service through many years and wars, including the Second Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, and had many different titles throughout its 28 ...

outside the town hall on 18 June 1915 during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

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 also met civic leaders there in 1938 shortly before 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 opposin ...

. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Eccles Borough Council but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

Salford City Council Salford City Council is the local authority of the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majo ...

was formed in 1974. The building subsequently fell into a state of disrepair until its management passed to a special purpose entity, Eccles Community Hall Organisation, in July 2010. Following the refurbishment of the assembly hall, with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, in 2012, it became a regular concert venue with programmes that included the works of

Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

Fritz Kreisler Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler (February 2, 1875 – January 29, 1962) was an Austrian-born American violinist and composer. One of the most noted violin masters of his day, and regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time, he was known ...

and

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

performed by the BBC Philharmonic in November 2015.

References

{{Salford B&S , state=collapsed Government buildings completed in 1881 City and town halls in Greater Manchester Eccles, Greater Manchester