The Old Town Hall is a former events venue in Prince of Wales Road,

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is north of Norwich, north-northeast of London and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local government authorities are Nor ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England. The structure, which is currently used for retail purposes, 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

In the mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company to raise funds for the erection of an events venue in the town. The site they selected was on the west side of Prince of Wales Road and the foundation stone was laid by Mrs Benjamin Bond-Cabbell of

Cromer Hall Cromer Hall is a country house located one mile south of Cromer on Holt Road, in the English county of Norfolk. The present house was built in 1829Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East, By Nikolaus Pevsner and Bill Wilson, Cromer entry, page 120. ...

on 3 January 1890. The building was designed by

George Skipper George John Skipper (1856–1948) was a leading Norwich-based architect of the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Writer and poet, John Betjeman said of him "he is altogether remarkable and original. He was to Norwich what Gaudi was to Ba ...

in the Queen Anne style, built in red brick with a stucco finish by Chapman and Son of

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

and was completed later that year. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Prince of Wales Road; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured, on the ground floor, a round headed doorway and, on the first floor, a four-part window flanked by fluted

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s supporting a modillioned

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

with an illustration of a sailing ship in the tympanum. The bays on either side of the central bay were fenestrated by sash windows on the ground floor and by two-part windows on the first floor while the outer bays were fenestrated by pairs of sash windows on the ground floor and by three-part windows on the first floor. Between the two floors there was a panel bearing the coats of arms of the first

lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

, Sir Nicholas de Weyland, of the mariner, Robert Bacon, of the locally-born

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

, Sir Bartholomew Reade, and of the later lords of the manor, Lord Suffield and Benjamin Bond-Cabbell, as well as those of other prominent local families. Internally, the principal room was the main assembly hall which was designed to accommodate 900 people. Following significant population growth, largely associated with the tourism industry, the area became an urban district in 1894. However, rather than using the town hall, the new council chose to establish its offices at the corner of West Street and Chapel Street in 1908, before relocating to North Lodge Park in 1928. Following 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 opposi ...

, during which time the town hall was requisitioned for military use, it resumed its role as a theatre and performers included the actor, Bernard Archard, who appeared in a production entitled ''The Regency Players'', in 1960. The building was acquired by a firm of wine merchants in 1963, when the company that had developed it was wound up. The town hall was then acquired by a property developer and let to the Co-op in 1991, before being restored with funding from

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

in 1994. In the early 21st century, it was occupied by a firm of solicitors, and, in September 2020, it re-opened as a shop known as "Harbord's Artisan Vintage Emporium".

Notes

References

{{Reflist Government buildings completed in 1890 City and town halls in Norfolk Cromer Grade II listed buildings in Norfolk