Farnham Town Hall is a municipal building in South Street,

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England. It provides the offices and the meeting place of Farnham Town Council.

History

The first municipal building in the town was the Bailiff's Hall in The Borough which was built in red brick and completed in 1674. In the middle of the 19th century the local board of health decided to commission a new town hall and corn exchange: they site they chose was just to the south of the Bailiff's Hall on the corner with Castle Street and was occupied by a public house known as the Goat's Head. The new building was designed by Edward Wyndham Tarn in the Gothic style, was built with white bricks from Huntingdon and was officially opened on 15 March 1866. The entrance was in the centre bay on the Castle Street side: there were shops on the ground floor on the side facing The Borough and the building featured an high clock tower with a belfry and a spire at the corner of the two streets. Internally, there was a market hall on the ground floor and an assembly room above; the interior of the building was decorated with terracotta supplied by John Blashfield. The borough council, which had not met for many years, was formally abolished under the

Municipal Corporations Act 1883 A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. Following significant population growth, largely associated with Farnham's role as an early commuter town, 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 1895. In this context civic leaders decided to procure new civic offices: the site they selected was open land on the northeast side of South Street. The new building was designed by Paxton Hood Watson in the Neo-Georgian style, built in red brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1903. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto South Street; the first bay from the left featured a Venetian window with a white

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

gable above containing carvings in the tympanum; the second bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a semi-circular porch with Doric order columns and a domed roof and there was a

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 ...

on the first floor. The right hand bay originally contained an archway for use by the horse-drawn fire engine and the other bays featured casement windows on both floors. A projecting clock was installed on the front of the building at first floor level on the right hand side and there was 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 ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and a

roof lantern A roof lantern is a daylighting architectural element. Architectural lanterns are part of a larger roof and provide natural light into the space or room below. In contemporary use it is an architectural skylight structure. A lantern roof wil ...

at roof level. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber on the first floor. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Farnham Urban District Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged

Waverley Borough Council Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Waverley (novel), ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott **Overtures by Hector Berlioz#Waverley, ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a cha ...

was formed in 1974. It was extended to the rear in the 1990s. Farnham Town Council acquired the building in 2011 and began using it as its offices as well as its meeting place. A suite of meeting rooms were subsequently refurbished and re-opened as The Tindle Suite in May 2015 in honour of Sir Ray Tindle, a newspaper proprietor and local benefactor. Works of art in the town hall include a portrait of the journalist and member of parliament, William Cobbett, on loan from the Farnham Museum.

Notes

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1903 City and town halls in Surrey Buildings and structures in Farnham