Reading Town Hall is the town hall of

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

, England. The town hall was built in several phases between 1786 and 1897, although the principal facade was designed by Alfred Waterhouse in 1875. Situated close to the site of

Reading Abbey Reading Abbey is a large, ruined abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. It was founded by Henry I in 1121 "for the salvation of my soul, and the souls of King William, my father, and of King William, m ...

, it is adjoined to the north by the Hospitium of St John and to the south by St Laurence's Church. No longer the home of the town's administration, the Town Hall now houses the

Reading Museum Reading Museum (run by the Reading Museum Service) is a museum of the history of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire, and the surrounding area. It is accommodated within Reading Town Hall, and contains galleries describing th ...

, a large concert hall, several smaller halls and conference rooms, a marriage Ceremony Room, and a public cafe. It is a

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 ...

, with the block designed by Alfred Waterhouse being listed grade II*, whilst other parts of the building are listed grade II.

History

The first recorded town or guild hall for Reading was known as the ''Yield Hall'' and is known to have been situated beside the

River Kennet The Kennet is a tributary of the River Thames in Southern England. Most of the river is straddled by the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The lower reaches have been made navigable as the Kennet Navigation, which � ...

near the current ''Yield Hall Lane''. However, by the middle of the 16th century this had proved too small, and the spoils of the dissolution of the monasteries were to provide both of the town's next two halls. Initially, in 1543, the town was granted part of the former friary that was later to become Greyfriars Church. However Greyfriars did not prove a successful town hall, and some twenty years later the council created a new town hall by inserting an upper floor into the former refectory of the Hospitium of St John, Reading Abbey's

hospitium Hospitium (; gr, ξενία, '' xenia'', προξενία) is the ancient Greco-Roman concept of hospitality as a divine right of the guest and a divine duty of the host. Similar or broadly equivalent customs were and are also known in other cult ...

. The lower floor of this building continued to be used by

Reading School Reading School is a grammar school for boys with academy status in the English town of Reading, the county of Berkshire. It traces its history back to the school of Reading Abbey and is, thus, one of the oldest schools in England. There are no ...

, as it had been since 1486. For the next 200 years, the old monastic building continued to serve as Reading's town hall, but by the 18th century it was suffering from structural weakness. Between 1785 and 1786, the old hall was dismantled and replaced on the same site by the first of several phases of building that were to make up today's Town Hall. This part of the building later became known as the Small Town Hall or the Victoria Hall, to distinguish it from the much later concert hall. The new hall was designed by Alderman Charles Poulton, a cabinet maker by trade, and is today largely hidden behind later extensions. The rear elevation and four

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

with semi-circular tops can be seen from St Laurence's churchyard. In 1864, the 1780s building was redecorated in an

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

by William Henry Woodman, the borough surveyor. At the same time an organ, built by

Father Willis Henry Willis (27 April 1821 – 11 February 1901), also known as "Father" Willis, was an English organ player and builder, who is regarded as the foremost organ builder of the Victorian era. His company Henry Willis & Sons remains in busin ...

and presented by the Reading Philharmonic Society, was installed. In 1875, an extension and new frontage was designed in

Victorian Gothic 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 ...

style by the architect Alfred Waterhouse, involving partial demolition of the 1780s building but retaining the core hall. The new frontage was built with red and grey bricks, together with

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

ornaments, all of which were products of the town's Colliers' brickworks. This extension added a council chamber and offices to the building, and the clock tower over its entrance is still a distinctive Reading landmark. Alfred Waterhouse was subsequently asked to design a further extension including a new concert hall, museum and library, but this was thought too expensive. Instead the council decided to hold a design competition, and this was won by Thomas Lainson with a design that continued Waterhouse's Gothic styling. Again an Italianate style was used for the interior, and Lainson designed a new Baroque style case for the organ, which was enhanced and relocated into the new concert hall. The concert hall opened in 1882, and was followed by the museum and library in 1883–4. Municipal Buildings, Reading, c

A final extension opened in 1897 and contained an extension to the library and an art gallery. This was designed by William Roland Howell, and includes the frontage on Valpy Street. In 1943, during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the southern end of the building suffered serious damage during an air raid. The scars of this attack remained visible until restoration work was carried out some 50 years later. A gala ball and a cabaret were held in the town hall that year as part of the borough's fund raising efforts for Wings for Victory Week. By 1951 the administration of the town had overflowed the available offices in the Town Hall, and the council decided to build new civic offices. Finally in 1976, the civic offices moved out to the newly built Reading Civic Centre. In 1985 the library moved to a new central library building on King's Road, leaving only the museum and concert hall in use. After some debate, plans to demolish the Town Hall and replace it with a new cultural centre were dropped, and in 1986 refurbishment of the building started with the closure of the concert hall. The refurbishment was completed in 2000, bringing the concert hall back into use and providing several new galleries for the museum and art gallery.

References

External links

Official websiteTown Hall page from Reading Arts web site
{{Listed buildings in Reading Alfred Waterhouse buildings City and town halls in Berkshire Grade II* listed buildings in Reading Town Hall