Pontefract Town Hall is a town hall in

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. It was completed in 1882. It is now owned and used by

Wakefield Council Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, also known as Wakefield Council, is the local authority of the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council and provides a full range of local government services inc ...

as a registry office. The building has been

Grade II listed 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 ...

since 15 November 1988.

History

The present building was commissioned by Pontefract Borough Council as the new assembly rooms for the town after the council deemed the

old town hall Old or OLD may refer to: Places * Old, Baranya, Hungary * Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, ...

to be insufficient for their then requirements, especially for concerts, balls and public meetings. A design competition was arranged and the winning design was selected for the new assembly rooms following a competition for which 59 entries were submitted. The building was designed by Henry Perkin and George Bertram Bulmer of Leeds and completed in 1882. The civic leaders and magistrates started to hold their meetings in the assembly rooms from the early 20th century. The building remained the meeting place for Pontefract Borough Council but ceased to be the local seat of Government when the enlarged

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, also known as Wakefield Council, is the local authority of the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council and provides a full range of local government services in ...

was formed in 1974. The building was the subject of an extensive restoration programme in 1996. Since it was formed by the then Vicar of St. Giles Church, the Reverend Jack Peel, in 1949, the St. Giles with St. Mary's Pantomime and Theatre Society have been staging pantomimes in the assembly rooms. Performances in the 1950s included a pantomime based on a folk tale from ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' entitled ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...

''; more recent performances have included a pantomime based on another folk tale from ''One Thousand and One Nights'' entitled ''

Sinbad the Sailor Sinbad the Sailor (; ar, سندباد البحري, Sindibādu al-Bahriyy; fa, سُنباد بحری, Sonbād-e Bahri or Sindbad) is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle of Persian origin. He is described as hailing from Baghdad ...

'' in 2011 and a pantomime based on a fairy tale by

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fairy tales, consisti ...

entitled ''

the Snow Queen "The Snow Queen" ( da, Snedronningen) is an original fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published 21 December 1844 in '' New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection'' (''Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Anden Samli ...

'' in 2020.

Architectural style

Exterior

The building is of red brick in Flemish bond dressed with ashlar sandstone and a steeply-pitched Welsh slate roof and is Jacobean in style. The Bridge Street facade has one bay and a leaved panelled door situated below a fanlight under a round-arched portal with datestone.

Interior

There is a central entrance hall with staircase leading up to the first floor which has a galleried assembly room. The assembly room has a gallery with decorative panels to gallery front and an arched ceiling with transverse ribs.

References

External links