St Albans Town Hall, sometimes known as the Old Town Hall or The Courthouse, is a 19th-century building in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England. The building, which now accommodates the St Albans Museum, is a Grade II* listed building.

History

The first civic building in St Albans was the moot hall which was completed in 1570. After the moot hall became dilapidated, a discussion took place on the location of the new building: the justices preferred a site in Romeland whereas civic leaders preferred St Peter's Street. It was eventually agreed to proceed with a new building, which would accommodate both a town hall and a courtroom, in St Peter's Street. The new building, which was designed by George Smith in the neoclassical style was completed in 1826.

Legal history

The Court Room of the Court House, St Albans a

St Albans had its own quarter sessions because of the existence of the Liberty of St Albans when the building was constructed. The Bribery Commission held hearings in the building in 1851 to investigate the "cash for votes" scandal which had involved the local Whig Party candidate, Jacob Bell, buying votes, typically at £5 per vote; the Commissioners found that some 308 voters had received money for their votes and they decided that the Borough of St Albans should lose its parliamentary representation (the constituency was re-established in an enlarged form in 1885). In 1874, for judicial purposes, Hertfordshire was divided into two divisions by Act of Parliament, the eastern part of the county to be the

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

division and the western part to be known as the Liberty of St Albans Division, each maintaining separate quarter sessions, but being a single commission of the peace. The Act made clear that, despite its name, the St Albans division was not to be deemed a liberty in any future legislation. Following the implementation of the

Courts Act 1971 The Courts Act 1971 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the purpose of which was to reform and modernise the courts system of England and Wales. It established the Crown Court, introduced the posts of circuit judge and recorde ...

, the

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

and the quarter sessions were superseded by crown court hearings on 1 January 1972. The town hall ceased to a venue for judicial purposes when crown court hearings moved to a

new courthouse New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

in Bricket Road in 1992.

Local government

The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of St Albans City Council during first half of the 20th century. The building also served as the meeting place of St Albans Rural District Council between 1895 and 1929. St Albans City Council moved to new Civic Offices further north along St Peter's Street in 1966, which became the regular meeting place for the council. Following a programme of conversion works costing £7.75 million carried out to a design by

John McAslan and Partners John Renwick McAslan (born 16 February 1954) is a British architect. Education and career John McAslan was educated at Dunoon Grammar School, Dollar Academy and University of Edinburgh, Scotland, obtaining an MA in Architecture in 1977 and a ...

, the

St Albans Museum ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy a ...

, which had been located in Hatfield Road until it closed in that location in September 2015, re-opened in the town hall in June 2018.

Architecture

The design involves a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the Market Square; the central bay features a podium on the ground floor containing three

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s supporting a tetrastyle

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

with

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

columns and a large

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and pediment above. Internally, the principal rooms are the assembly hall, which also functions as a ballroom, and the courtroom, which has an

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al shape and is panelled.

References

External links