Salisbury Guildhall is an 18th-century municipal building in the Market Place,

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

, England. The building, which is the meeting place of the

Salisbury City Council Salisbury City Council is a parish-level council for Salisbury, England. It was established in April 2009 and is based in the city's historic Guildhall. Following the May 2021 election, no party has an overall majority. Population The civil p ...

, 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 guildhall, known as the "Bishop's Guildhall", was built on the initiative of the

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat ...

, Simon of Ghent, in around 1314. It was so-called because this was the place where the bishop would exercise his feudal rights. A second building, known as the "Council House" was built by the Merchants Guild to the north of the original building in 1585. After the Council House was burnt down in a fire at a banquet, it was rebuilt, with a gift from

Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 2nd Earl of Radnor Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 2nd Earl of Radnor FRS FSA (4 March 1750 – 27 January 1828), styled Hon. Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie from 1761 to 1765 and Viscount Folkestone from 1765 to 1776, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons fr ...

, in 1780. In 1785 the bishop gave up his rights as clerk of the market and in return was released from his obligations to maintain the guildhall. This enabled the old Bishop's Guildhall, which had become dilapidated, to be demolished. The current building, which was designed by

Sir Robert Taylor Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788) was an English architect and sculptor who worked in London and the south of England. Early life Born at Woodford, Essex, Taylor followed in his father's footsteps and started working as a stonemason and sculptor ...

and William Pilkington, was built on the site of the former Bishop's Guildhall and completed in 1795. The design involved a portico with

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...

columns with

triglyph Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are ...

frieze above; tall arched windows were inserted on each side of the portico. A grand jury room was added in 1829. There was a bomb explosion outside the guildhall in September 1884; according to the judge, the defendants had been "motivated by a mischievous desire to alarm the public". The building, which had been the meeting place of the

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

of Salisbury throughout much of the 20th century, became the headquarters of

Salisbury District Salisbury was a local government district in Wiltshire, England from 1974 to 2009. Its main urban area was the city of Salisbury. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972 and the pursuant The English Non- ...

in 1974. All magistrates' court hearings in Salisbury were held in the courtroom in the west wing of the guildhall. Additional judicial facilities, to accommodate the crown and county courts, were established in Alexandra House in St John's Street in the mid-1980s.

Princess Diana Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

visited the guildhall on 14 May 1991. After the abolition of the district in 2009, the guildhall became the meeting place of the newly created

. The

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

and the

Duchess of Cornwall Duchess of Cornwall is a courtesy title held by the wife of the eldest son and heir of the British monarch. The current title-holder is Catherine, wife of William, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. Duchesses of Cornwall Until her husband' ...

visited, in the aftermath of the Salisbury nerve agent attack, on 22 June 2018. Works of art in the guildhall include a portrait by John de Critz of

James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

, a portrait by Peter Lely of

John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset and 3rd Marquess of Hertford (before 164629 April 1675) was an English peer and MP. He was the only surviving son of William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset, and Lady Frances Devereux. In 1656, he married Sara ...

and a painting by George Cole depicting a view of Salisbury from Harnham Hill. The

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel Tom Adlam during the First World War is also on display in the guildhall.

References

{{Reflist Georgian architecture in Wiltshire Grade II* listed buildings in Wiltshire Grade II* listed government buildings City and town halls in Wiltshire Government buildings completed in 1795

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...