Farnborough Town Hall is a municipal building in Alexandra Road,

Farnborough Farnborough may refer to: Australia * Farnborough, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Livingstone United Kingdom * Farnborough, Hampshire, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England ** Farnborough (Main) railway station, a railw ...

, Hampshire, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Farnborough Urban District Council, is a Grade II listed building.

History

Following significant population growth associated with the rebuilding of the North Camp in 1890, the area became an

urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...

in 1896. In this context, the new council decided to procure a dedicated town hall; the site they selected was open land to the west of Alexandra Road. The new building was designed by George Sherrin in the neoclassical style, built in red brick with

Bath stone Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...

dressings and was completed in 1897. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Alexandra Road; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured an arched doorway in the centre bay and arched windows in the other bays flanked by full-height

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 ...

pilasters. There were groups of narrow

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a cas ...

s on the first floor and a segmental pediment containing a carving above. It had a steep hip roof with a clock turret and weather vane at the apex. On 14 April 1920 a reception was held in the town hall for 283 returning service personnel who enjoyed a dinner and received a certificate of appreciation for their service in the First World War. Following the demolition of the concert hall at the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

, the Farnborough Symphony Orchestra, which had been founded by the scientist,

Ben Lockspeiser Sir Ben Lockspeiser, KCB, FRS, MIMechE, FRAeS (9 March 1891 – 18 October 1990) was a British scientific administrator and the first President of CERN. Early life and education Lockspeiser was born at 7 President Street in the City of Londo ...

in 1922, started using the town hall as its main venue in the 1930s. The Farnborough Amateur Operatic Society also used the town hall to perform

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

operettas in the inter-war era. During the Second World War the town hall was requisitioned for use as a civil defence centre. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Farnborough Urban District Council for much of the 20th century and remained the local seat of government of the enlarged

Rushmoor Council Rushmoor is a local government district and borough in Hampshire, England. It covers the towns of Aldershot and Farnborough as well as Cove and North Camp. It was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the borough of Aldershot and the Farnbor ...

, which was formed in 1974, until it moved to the new civic offices, erected just under a mile to the north of the town hall in the early 1980s. Shortly before the council left the building, the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Rushmoor and exercised their right to march past the town hall on 29 May 1981. The town hall was subsequently converted for commercial use and was renamed "Fernberga House".

Notes

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1897 City and town halls in Hampshire Farnborough, Hampshire Grade II listed buildings in Hampshire