Llangollen Town Hall ( cy, Neuadd y Dref Llangollen), is a municipal building in Castle Street,

Llangollen Llangollen () is a town and community, situated on the River Dee, in Denbighshire, Wales. Its riverside location forms the edge of the Berwyn range, and the Dee Valley section of the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Bea ...

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. The structure, which is the meeting place of Llangollen Town 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

The first municipal building in the town was a lock-up for petty criminals at the junction of Berwyn Street and Hall Street which was designed in the

Tudorbethan Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

style, built in

rubble masonry Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an i ...

and completed in 1834. Following the formation of a

local board of health Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environmenta ...

in the area in 1857, the room on the first floor was adapted for use as the meeting place of the board and as the local town hall. A local builder, Morris Roberts, immediately launched an initiative to erect a more substantial structure in the town: the site he proposed for development was open land in New Street, now known as Castle Street, which he acquired at auction in December 1858. The new building was designed by Lloyd Williams and Underwood in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, built in rubble masonry and was completed in 1867. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto Castle Street; the left-hand bay featured an arched entrance with a square-headed doorway and an oculus in the tympanum. There was an arched recess containing a pair of cusped lancet windows and a clock on the first floor, and a gable above. The main hall section, formed by the five bays to the right, featured arched openings with linked voussoirs on the ground floor and

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed windows with quatrefoils and voussoirs on the first floor. At roof level, there was a

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

with a

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

-shaped roof above the left-hand bay. Internally, the principal rooms were a market hall on the ground floor and an assembly room on the first floor. The building was also used an events venue: performers included the actress,

Helena Faucit Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin (11 October 1817 – 31 October 1898) was an English actress. Early life Born in London, she was the daughter of actors John Saville Faucit and Harriet Elizabeth Savill. Her parents separated when she was a ...

, who read passages written by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

there in autumn 1877. The local board of health was succeeded by the Llangollen Urban District Council which established its offices in the town hall in 1894. After the condition of the building deteriorated and police refused the "Maggie Morton Theatrical Company" from performing there in November 1901, the new council initiated extensive repairs at a cost of £3,000 in 1902. Fund raising events in aid of the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...

were held in the building 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 ...

, and a war memorial, in the form of a celtic cross, which was intended to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who had died in the war, was erected and unveiled in front of the building in the early 1920s. The building continued to serve as the meeting place of the urban district council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Glyndŵr District Council was formed in 1974. Following the introduction of

unitary authorities A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governme ...

in 1996, ownership of the building was transferred to

Denbighshire County Council Denbighshire County Council is the unitary local authority for the county of Denbighshire, one of the principal areas of Wales. The council is based at County Hall in Ruthin. Elections take place every five years. The last election was on 5 M ...

. It became the regular meeting place of Llangollan Town Council, which went on to acquire the building in March 2012. The building also continued to be used as a community events venue with the Dee Rocks music festival held in May each year, and the Llangollen Fringe Festival held in July each year.

References

{{Government buildings in Wales Llangollen City and town halls in Wales Grade II listed buildings in Denbighshire Government buildings completed in 1867