Lancaster Town Hall is a municipal building in Dalton Square, Lancaster,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. It 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 building was commissioned to replace the aging

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

, now the city museum, in Market Square. The new building was designed by Edward Mountford and

Thomas Lucas Thomas Lucas (c.1720–1784) MP, was a West India merchant, treasurer of Guy's Hospital 1764–1774 and then president of its board of governors until his death. Business interests His directorships included the Union Society in 1759, the Sout ...

in the Edwardian Baroque style and the stonework, furniture and carvings were undertaken by

Waring & Gillow Waring & Gillow (also written as Waring and Gillow) was a noted firm of English furniture manufacturers and antique dealers formed in 1897 by the merger of Gillows of Lancaster and London and Waring of Liverpool. Background Gillow & Co. The fir ...

. The carvings on the front pediment were sculpted by

F. W. Pomeroy Frederick William Pomeroy (9 October 1856 – 26 May 1924) was a prolific British sculptor of architectural and monumental works. He became a leading sculptor in the New Sculpture movement, a group distinguished by a stylistic turn towards Natu ...

and the stained glass windows were manufactured by Shrigley and Hunt. The facility accommodated a police station in the basement and a magistrates' court on the ground floor and it included an assembly hall, to the rear of the main building, which became known as the "Ashton Hall". The concert organ in the Ashton Hall was designed and built by

Norman and Beard Norman and Beard were a pipe organ manufacturer based in Norwich from 1887 to 1916. History The origins of the company are from a business founded in Diss in 1870 by Ernest William Norman (1851–1927). In 1876 he moved to Norwich where he we ...

for the hall in time for its opening. The whole complex, as well as the Queen Victoria Memorial in Dalton Square, had been personally financed by Lord Ashton who officially opened the facility on 27 December 1909. A war memorial, designed by Thomas Mawson & Sons together with the Bromsgrove School of Art and sculpted by Morton of Cheltenham, was unveiled by the mayor, George Jackson, in a memorial garden adjacent to the town hall, on 3 December 1924.

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

, accompanied by the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

, visited the town hall in her new capacity as

Duke of Lancaster The Dukedom of Lancaster is an English peerage merged into the crown. It was created three times in the Middle Ages, but finally merged in the Crown when Henry V succeeded to the throne in 1413. Despite the extinction of the dukedom the title h ...

on 13 April 1955. Highly publicised cases to come before the courtroom on the ground floor of the town hall included the initial stages of the trial of Dr

Buck Ruxton Buck Ruxton (born Bukhtyar Chompa Rustomji Ratanji Hakim; 21 March 1899 – 12 May 1936) was an Indian-born physician convicted and subsequently hanged for the September 1935 murders of his common-law wife, Isabella Ruxton ( née Kerr), and the ...

, who in 1935, was accused of murdering both his wife and his housemaid. The town hall became the headquarters of Municipal Borough of Lancaster on completion but following the amalgamation of the Municipal Borough of Lancaster with the

Municipal Borough of Morecambe and Heysham Morecambe and Heysham was a municipal borough in Lancashire, England. It was formed in 1928 by the merging of Morecambe Municipal Borough and Heysham Urban District, and abolished in 1974 when it was absorbed into the City of Lancaster The ...

in 1974, meetings of the full council of the

City of Lancaster The City of Lancaster () is a local government district of Lancashire, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Lancaster, but covers a far larger area, which includes the tow ...

have been held in Morecambe Town Hall. In May 1995 Priory Records released a recording from the Ashton Hall entitled ''Lancastrian Organ Gems'' which involved excerpts of music composed by

Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...

Malcolm Archer Malcolm Archer (born 1952) is an English composer, conductor and organist. He combines this work with a recital career. Archer was formerly Organist and Director of Music at Bristol Cathedral, Wells Cathedral and at St Paul's Cathedral and Di ...

and

Henry Smart Henry Thomas Smart (26 October 1813 – 6 July 1879) was an English organist and composer. Biography Smart was born in London, a nephew of the conductor Sir George Smart and son of a music publisher, orchestra director and accomplished violini ...

performed by Malcolm Archer on the concert organ. Episode 14 of series 28 of the ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people (g ...

'', which was broadcast on 14 March 2014, was filmed in the Ashton Hall within the complex. The Magistrates' Court had moved to a new building in 1985, but the old Magistrates' Court within the Town Hall was brought back into use as an emergency ' Nightingale Court' during the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic. The Ashton Hall was similarly used as an emergency Crown Court.

References

{{City of Lancaster buildings Buildings and structures in Lancaster, Lancashire City and town halls in Lancashire Grade II* listed buildings in Lancashire Government buildings completed in 1909