Winchester Guildhall is a municipal building in the High Street,

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. It 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 site was previously occupied by St Mary's Abbey and came under crown control on the dissolution of the monasteries in the late 1530s: it was then gifted by Queen Mary to the City of Salisbury in gratitude for the city's support in securing her marriage to King Philip of Spain in 1554. The foundation stone was laid by the former

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

Viscount Eversley A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

on 22 December 1871. The new building was designed by Jeffery and Skiller in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

and built by Joseph Bull & Sons. The design for the central section involved a flight of steps leading up to an arcaded entrance on the first floor, three

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 ...

windows on the second floor with a tall clock tower above flanked by angle

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s. Statues of local historical figures were erected on the front of the building at second floor level. It was officially opened by the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

Earl of Selborne Earl of Selborne, in the County of Southampton, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1882 for the lawyer and Liberal politician Roundell Palmer, 1st Baron Selborne, along with the subsidiary title of Viscount Wo ...

, on 18 May 1873. An extension to the west of the original building, built to the designs of John Colson with a flint-work frontage, thereby creating a new banqueting facility, was added in 1893. The banqueting facility was subsequently renamed the King Charles Room. The guildhall, which was 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 Winchester continued to serve as the local seat of government after the enlarged

City of Winchester The City of Winchester () is a local government district in Hampshire, England, with a city status. The district covers the ancient settlement of the city of Winchester itself, but also covers a large area of central Hampshire including Bis ...

was formed in 1974. In June 2009, a large room in the guildhall was extensively refurbished with financial support from a legacy left by the Marchioness of Winchester; the money had been left on condition that it would be used to build a public hall in her honour, complete with a full-length portrait of her. In accordance with her wishes, the room was renamed the Bapsy Room in her honour and a huge portrait of her in her state robes by Frank Salisbury was given pride of place in the room. When a portrait of King Charles I, hanging in the King Charles Room, was restored in 2017, it was revealed that the portrait was originally a depiction of

Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of Saint Albans, (25 March 1605 (baptised) – January 1684) was an English politician and courtier. He sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1625 and 1643 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Jermyn. ...

Peter Lely Sir Peter Lely (14 September 1618 – 7 December 1680) was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court. Life Lely was born Pieter van der Faes to Dutch ...

which had been over-painted by another painter with an image of the King. Other paintings in the King Charles Room include a portrait of King Charles II, also by Peter Lely, and a portrait of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

Edward Halliday Edward Irvine Halliday CBE (1902–1984) was a British painter, known for his portraits and his murals in the 1920s. He also worked in television and radio as a host. About Edward Irvine Halliday was born on 7 October 1902 in Garston, Liverp ...

. In the stairwell there is a painting of the children of

Charles Paulet, 13th Marquess of Winchester Charles Ingoldsby Burroughs-Paulet, 13th Marquess of Winchester PC (27 January 1764 – 29 November 1843) was a British peer and courtier, styled Earl of Wiltshire from 1794 until 1800. Life Baptized as Charles Ingoldsby Paulet, he was the el ...

Thomas Stewardson Thomas Stewardson (August 1781 – 1859) was a British portrait painter. Stewardson was born at Kendal in August 1781, the son of John and Anne Stewardson, who were from a Quaker family at Ullsmoor, near Shap in Westmoreland. He is buried at ...

References

{{reflist Grade II listed buildings in Hampshire City and town halls in Hampshire Government buildings completed in 1875