Hall for Cornwall, known as Truro City Hall until 1997, is an events venue in Boscawen Street in
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...
,
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, England. The building, which was previously the headquarters of Truro City Council, is 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 ...
.
History
![HallforCornwall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/HallforCornwall.jpg)
The first municipal building in Truro was a 17th-century market house, which was arcaded on the ground floor so that markets could be held, with an assembly hall on the first floor.
It was replaced with a more substantial structure in 1809 but when that was also found to be inadequate, civic leaders commissioned a new building on the same site in the early 1840s.
[
The new building was designed by Christopher Eales 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 ...
, built in granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
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 completed in 1846.[ The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Boscawen Street; the ground floor was arcaded and rusticated, while the first floor had ]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 with triangular pediments on the central and outer windows and with segmental pediments on the other windows.[ There were ]quoin
Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
s at the corners and at roof level there was a heavily 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 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 ...
.[ Internally, the north end of the complex accommodated the municipal buildings, which included a courtroom and a council chamber, while the south end accommodated a market hall.][
A ]clocktower
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 buildin ...
was installed on the Boscawen Street frontage in 1858 and the suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
, Helen Beedy, gave a speech advocating voting rights for women at a public meeting in the building in December 1874. In 1877, when Truro became a city, the complex was renamed Truro City Hall. In the early 20th century civic leaders decided to make the market hall at the rear of the complex available for public use. This resulted in the market hall being operated as a skating rink in 1907 and then as a cinema in 1912.[ After a fire gutted most of the building in 1914, the market hall was remodelled as a theatre with a stage in 1925 and, following a period of neglect in the 1960s, it served as a flea market in the 1970s.][ The ]rock band
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...
, Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
, played their first live concert in the building on 27 June 1970.
The municipal buildings continued to serve as the headquarters of Truro City Council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged Carrick District Council was formed at offices in Pydar Street in 1974.
After a major refurbishment in the mid-1990s, the former market hall at the rear of the complex re-opened as ''Hall for Cornwall'' on 15 November 1997.[ In September 2008 the venue put on a re-working of the play, '']The Jew of Malta
''The Jew of Malta'' (full title: ''The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta'') is a play by Christopher Marlowe, written in 1589 or 1590. The plot primarily revolves around a Maltese Jewish merchant named Barabas. The original story comb ...
'' by Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...
, entitled ''Barabas'', which featured a Cornish, national and international cast. The venue then became one of a number of organisations involved in Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council ( kw, Konsel Kernow) is the unitary authority for Cornwall in the United Kingdom, not including the Isles of Scilly, which has its own unitary council. The council, and its predecessor Cornwall County Council, has a tradition o ...
's proposed National Theatre of Cornwall
The National Theatre of Cornwall, or Cornish National Theatre, is a new theatre company proposed by Cornwall Council.
Culture strategy
It is one of ten cultural projects proposed as part of a five-year culture strategy agreed upon by Cornwall Cou ...
, when the initiative was launched in February 2012. Christmas shows, directed by locally based director and producer, Simon Harvey, included ''Dick Whittington and his Mousehole Cat!'' in December 2016 and ''Jack and the Beanstalk - A gigantic adventure!'' in December 2017.
A major programme of refurbishment works, which are being undertaken by Kier Group
Kier Group plc is a British construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, and the Private Finance Initiative.
Founded in 1928 in Stoke-on-Trent it initially specialised in concrete enginee ...
at a cost of £20 million to a design by Burrell Foley Fischer
Burrell Foley Fischer is an English architectural practice based in London and the Midlands. The practice is made up of architects, conservation specialists and urban designers. It is known for its Heritage, Learning, Residential, Work and Cultura ...
, began in June 2018. The project involves a completely new auditorium, located in the centre of the complex, increasing the capacity of the venue from 965 seats to 1,354 seats: it will be accessed from the north end of the complex, i.e. Boscawen Street, whereas the old auditorium was accessed from the south end of the complex, i.e. Back Quay. Although the venue will continued to be called ''Hall for Cornwall'', the new auditorium will be known as ''The Cornwall Playhouse'' when it opens later in 2021.
See also
* Grade II* listed buildings in Cornwall
There are over 20,000 Grade II* listed buildings in England. As the county of Cornwall contains 586 of these sites they have been split into alphabetical order.
* Grade II* listed buildings in Cornwall (A–G)
* Grade II* listed buildings in C ...
References
External links
{{Commons category
Official site
Government buildings completed in 1846
City and town halls in Cornwall
Truro
Grade II* listed buildings in Cornwall
Entertainment in Cornwall
Theatres in Cornwall
1846 establishments in England