Tiverton Town Hall is a municipal building in St Andrew Street in

Tiverton, Devon Tiverton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Devon, England, and the commercial and administrative centre of the Mid Devon district. The population in 2019 was 20,587. History Early history The town's name is conjectured to derive from "Twy-fo ...

, England. The structure, which was the meeting place of Tiverton Borough Council, 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 municipal building in Tiverton was a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

guildhall built on the site of the old St Thomas's Chapel in around 1615. The guildhall incorporated magistrates' court facilities as well as the local gaol. Following significant population growth, in part associated with the local lacemaking industry established by

John Heathcoat John Heathcoat (7 August 1783 – 18 January 1861) was an English inventor from Duffield, Derbyshire. During his apprenticeship he made an improvement to the warp-loom, so as to produce mitts of a lace-like appearance. He set up his own busines ...

in the early 19th century, Tiverton became a

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 ...

in 1835. In the 1860s, after finding the guildhall too small, civic leaders decided to demolish the old building and to erect a new town hall on the site. The new building was designed by Henry Lloyd in the

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

, built by a former mayor of the town, Samuel Garth, in

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone at a cost of £12,000 and was officially opened in May 1864. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage on the corner of Angel Hill and St Andrew Street; the central section of five bays featured, in the middle bay, an arched doorway flanked by

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

columns supporting an entablature. On the first floor, there was a round headed window flanked by Corinthian order columns supporting an entablature and a segmental pediment and, on the second floor, there was a

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed window flanked by

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 col ...

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s supporting a segmental pediment containing a clock in the tympanum, above which there was a central turret with a steep slate roof. The bays on either side of the middle bay were

cant Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to: Language * Cant (language), a secret language * Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers * Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers * Shelta or the Cant, a la ...

ed and the outer bays in the central section were curved. There was also a left hand section of two bays which contained, in the extreme left hand bay, a square tower with blind arches on the first and second floors and a turret above. Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the mayoralty room. The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of the borough council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Tiverton District Council was formed at The Great House in St Peter Street in 1974. The building subsequently became the local

Citizens Advice Citizens AdviceCitizens Advice is the operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux which is the umbrella charity for a wider network of local advice centres. The abbreviation CitA is sometimes used to refer to this nation ...

office as well as the meeting place of Tiverton Town Council. An extensive programme of refurbishment works, to a design by Jonathan Rhind Architects was completed in December 2006. Works of art in the building include a portrait by

Godfrey Kneller Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet (born Gottfried Kniller; 8 August 1646 – 19 October 1723), was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to Kingdom of England, English and Br ...

of King George I, a portrait by an unknown artist of King George II and a portrait by

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

. Other items include a portrait by

William Thomas Roden William Thomas Roden (31 May 1818 – 25 December 1892) was a nineteenth-century English artist. Life William Thomas Roden was born in Bradford Street, Birmingham, England, the son of William and Sarah Roden. He was apprenticed to a Mr. Vye, ...

of the former local

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

and

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Viscount Palmerston Viscount Palmerston was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 12 March 1723 for Henry Temple, who subsequently represented East Grinstead, Bossiney and Weobley in the British House of Commons. He was made Baron Temple, of Mount T ...

, a portrait by an unknown artist of the industrialist, John Heathcoat, and a bust of Viscount Palmerston which was presented to the town by a former mayor, William North Row.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1864 City and town halls in Devon Tiverton, Devon Grade II listed buildings in Devon