Ilkeston Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Place,

Ilkeston Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. The town hall, which currently serves as one of two meeting places of

Erewash Borough Council Erewash may refer to: * Borough of Erewash, a local government district in the county of Derbyshire, England * Erewash Valley, is the valley of the River Erewash * River Erewash, river in England * Erewash (UK Parliament constituency), Derbyshir ...

, is a

Grade II 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 ...

listed building.

History

In the first half of the 19th century, civic meetings had been held in a room above the Butter Market in the lower Market Place and, from the 1840s, the local board of health met in a domestic house on East Street. These facilities were deemed inadequate and a site for a new building was selected which was, at that time, occupied a row of thatched cottages. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the

Duke of Rutland Duke of Rutland is a title in the Peerage of England, named after Rutland, a county in the East Midlands of England. Earldoms named after Rutland have been created three times; the ninth earl of the third creation was made duke in 1703, in who ...

on 27 September 1866. The new building, which was designed by

Richard Charles Sutton Richard Charles Sutton was an architect based in Nottingham. He was born 1834 and died on 18 October 1915. He was a member of Nottingham City Council from 1887 to 1901. Career He was articled to Samuel Sanders Teulon and commenced independent p ...

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

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 ...

and built by William Warner of Ilkeston, was officially opened on 6 February 1868. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the Market Place; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a recessed rounded headed doorway flanked by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

supporting a

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

. The other bays on the ground floor and all the bays on the first floor were fenestrated by round headed windows and, at roof level, there was a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

. Following the grant of a Royal Charter, the town hall became the headquarters of the

Municipal Borough of Ilkeston Ilkeston was a Municipal Borough in Derbyshire, England from 1887 to 1974. It was formed under the Municipal Corporations Act 1882. The borough was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 and combined with the Long Eaton Urban D ...

in 1887. In 1892, during a concert by the Ilkeston and District Harmonic Society, heat from the newly installed lighting caused timbers in the roof to catch fire but the fire was quickly extinguished. Another fire was successfully extinguished before much damage was done in 1924. Following local government re-organisation in 1974, the newly formed authority,

, split its operations between Ilkeston Town Hall and

Long Eaton Town Hall Long Eaton Town Hall is a municipal building in Derby Road, Long Eaton, Derbyshire, England. The town hall, which currently serves as one of two meeting places of Erewash Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building. History The building wa ...

. The assembly hall at Ilkeston Town Hall was partitioned to form a Council Chamber at that time and the building was extended to create extra office space in 1975 and again 1981. In 2014, three war memorials in the form of bronze plaques located outside the town hall, which commemorate the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

, 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 ...

and 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 ...

, were fully restored.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1868 Buildings and structures in Derbyshire City and town halls in Derbyshire Grade II listed buildings in Derbyshire Ilkeston

History

See also

References