Worthing Town Hall, or New Town Hall, is a municipal building in Chapel Road,

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, England. The town hall, which is a meeting place of

Worthing Borough Council Worthing Borough Council is a district council in the county of West Sussex, based in the borough of Worthing. The borough council was created in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 out of the existing Worthing Municipal Council, which also ...

, 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 ...

. Located at Chapel Road in the centre of Worthing, it was opened in 1933 and built in a neo-Georgian style to designs by

Charles Cowles-Voysey Charles Cowles-Voysey (24 June 1889 – 10 April 1981) was an English architect. Career Charles Voysey studied at the Architectural Association School and the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture. Between 1909 and 1912 he was articled to Horace ...

. Containing offices and a Council chamber it replaced Worthing's Old Town Hall as the administrative centre, a building that had been the home of Worthing's local authority from 1835 and was demolished in 1966. To the rear and west lies the Assembly Hall, built in 1935, also to designs by Cowles-Voysey. To the south lies the Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, originally built as a Carnegie Library.

History

South Street, Worthing, England-LCCN2002708278

The town commissioners in Worthing originally met at the Nelson Inn on South Street and later at the Royal Oak Public House in Market Street. In the 1820s the commissioners decided to procure a dedicated town hall: the site they selected at the north end of South Street was a garden owned by Sir

Timothy Shelley Sir Timothy Shelley, 2nd Baronet (7 September 1753 – 24 April 1844) was an English politician and lawyer. He was the son of Sir Bysshe Shelley, 1st Baronet of Castle Goring and the father of Romantic poet and dramatist Percy Bysshe Shelley. ...

, former Whig MP for

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

and New Shoreham and the father of the Romantic poet

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

. The first purpose-built town hall, which was designed in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

with a

tetrastyle 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 ...

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 ...

and a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

was completed in June 1835. The town hall also acted as a courthouse for hearing

quarter sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

and

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 ...

. In the 1920s civic leaders decided that the first purpose-built town hall was inadequate and decided to procure a new building: the site they selected this time had been occupied by two large residential properties. The war memorial at the site, which takes the form of a bronze statue of a soldier holding a rifle mounted on a stone plinth, pre-dates the town hall: it was sculpted by Joseph Whitehead and Sons and unveiled by Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson on 11 April 1921. Construction of the second purpose-built town hall commenced on 1 October 1931. It was designed by

in the Neo-Georgian style, built in red brick with

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 dressings at a cost of £398,117 and was officially opened by Prince George on 22 May 1933. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nineteen bays facing onto Chapel Road; the central section of nine bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a three-bay tetrastyle portico 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 supporting an

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 ...

inscribed with the words "Ex terra copiam e mari salutum" (English: "From the land fulness and from the sea health") and a large

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

. There was a clock tower and a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

with

Tuscan order The Tuscan order (Latin ''Ordo Tuscanicus'' or ''Ordo Tuscanus'', with the meaning of Etruscan order) is one of the two classical orders developed by the Romans, the other being the composite order. It is influenced by the Doric order, but with u ...

columns, which was capped with a

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

, at roof level. Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the mayor's parlour: a map of Worthing, painted with oil paints on a wooden panel, was commissioned from the cartographer,

MacDonald Gill Leslie MacDonald Gill (6 October 1884 – 14 January 1947), commonly known as MacDonald Gill or Max Gill, was a noted early-twentieth-century British graphic designer, cartographer, artist and architect. Biography Born in Brighton, Gill was the ...

, and installed in the mayor's parlour. A large assembly hall, with a

proscenium arch A proscenium ( grc-gre, προσκήνιον, ) is the metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, usually surrounded on the top and sides by a physical proscenium arch (whether or not truly "arched") and on the bottom by the stage floor ...

was built as a separate structure to the rear of the main building and also completed in 1933. The foyer of the assembly hall was decorated with two panels, one on the left and the other on the right, each designed by the sculptor,

Laurence Bradshaw Laurence Bradshaw (1899–1978) was an English sculptor, printmaker, and artist. Bradshaw was a life-long socialist and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in the 1930s, remaining a member for the rest of his life. He is mo ...

, and depicting a male figure standing astride two fishes. In October 1934, the town hall was the starting point for the Battle of South Street, a riot which took place in the town as members of the

British Union of Fascists The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a British fascist political party formed in 1932 by Oswald Mosley. Mosley changed its name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists in 1936 and, in 1937, to the British Union. In 1939, fo ...

and various

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

protesters clashed after a newly elected fascist councillor, Charles Budd, failed to secure the committee places he desired on the council. The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of the local municipal borough council for much of the 20th century and remained the local seat of government after the formation of the enlarged

in 1974. Princess Alexandra and the Duchess of Gloucester visited the town hall on 20 June 2000 and 20 June 2006 respectively to take part in lunches for disabled war veterans on excursions from London. In November 2015, the council agreed that the town hall should be registered as a venue for marriages and civil partnerships.

Design

Exterior

Built in a Scandinavian-influenced Classical style, Worthing Town Hall was designed by Charles Cowles-Voysey, with detailing by

John Brandon-Jones John Brandon-Jones (18 September 1908 – 1 May 1999) was a British architect. His work was heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, of which he was a noted architectural historian. Life and career Brandon-Jones was born in Hendon ...

. The building consists of a centre and two wings. The centre has three storeys of red brick. It has a central Ionic

bearing the motto 'Ex terra copium e mari salutem'. Behind the portico the first floor windows have cast iron

balconette Balconet or balconette is an architectural term to describe a false balcony, or railing at the outer plane of a window-opening reaching to the floor, and having, when the window is open, the appearance of a balcony. They are common in France, Por ...

s. It has a

with a

surmounted by a ball and

and eight Tuscan columns with plumed

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

s. The north and south wings have two storeys, also of red brick.

Interior

The carpet in the council chamber is by Maufe of

Heal's Heal's ("Heal and Son Ltd") is a British furniture retail company comprising seven stores, selling a range of furniture, lighting and home accessories. For over two centuries, it has been known for promoting modern design and employing t ...

. The entrance hall floor is by

Gilbert Bayes Gilbert William Bayes (4 April 1872 – 10 July 1953) was an English sculptor. His art works varied in scale from medals to large architectural clocks, monuments and equestrian statues and he was also a designer of some note, creating chess piec ...

. In the mayor's parlour is a map of Worthing by

. It depicts Worthing in 1933, when there was no development in Findon Valley or West Durrington, and very little at

Goring-by-Sea Goring-by-Sea, commonly referred to simply as Goring, is a neighbourhood of Worthing and former civil parish, now in Worthing district in West Sussex, England. It lies west of West Worthing, about west of Worthing town centre. Historically in ...

. Instead there were many glasshouses across the borough that grew a variety of produce including figs, tomatoes, grapes, cucumbers, mushrooms and chrysanthemums.

Appearances in film and television

* '' Cuffs'' (television series) * '' Vindication Swim''

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * {{Refend Government buildings completed in 1933 City and town halls in West Sussex Buildings and structures in Worthing Grade II listed buildings in West Sussex