Cleethorpes Town Hall is a municipal structure in Knoll Street,

Cleethorpes Cleethorpes () is a seaside town on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire, England with a population of 38,372 in 2020. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry, then develo ...

, Lincolnshire, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Cleethorpes Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.

History

After significant population growth, mainly associated with the seaside tourism industry, Cleethorpes became an urban district in 1894. In this context civic leaders decided to procure a council house: the site selected was open land owned by Councillor Henry Kelly. The new building was designed by

Herbert Scaping Herbert C Scaping (1866-1934) was an architect who worked in Grimsby, Lincolnshire in the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles. He was born in Rathfarnham, co Dublin before his family moved to Hull, his only known family are his two daughters ...

in the Baroque style, built in red brick with stone dressings by Henry Marrows and was opened in 1905. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Knoll Street; the middle bay featured a porch with a rusticated stone surround supporting a

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

; on the first floor there was a

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 ...

which was flanked by two pairs of

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 which supported a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). All ...

ed pediment with a cartouche in the centre of the tympanum. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber. The area was advanced to the status of municipal borough with the council house as its headquarters in 1936. The council house continued to serve as the headquarters of Cleethorpes Borough Council for much of the 20th century and continued to be the local seat of government after Cleethorpes District Council was formed in 1974. Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester visited the building, as part of the celebrations to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, on 8 September 1985. In order to accommodate the increasing accommodation requirements of council officers and their departments, new civic offices, designed by William Saunders & Partners in the postmodern style were built to the northeast of the council house and opened in 1987. During the 1980s the building became known as the "Cleethorpes Town Hall": however, it ceased to be the local seat of government when North East Lincolnshire Council became the unitary authority, with its offices in Grimsby, in 1996. The Prime Minister,

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

, accompanied by the Duke of Kent, visited the town hall on armed forces day in June 2016. In the town hall there is an iconic statue entitled '' The Boy with the Leaking Boot'', which had been given to the town by the Swedish vice-consul, John Carlbom, and installed in Kingsway Gardens, in 1918. After the statue was repeatedly vandalised, it was relocated to the landing half way up the staircase in the town hall and, instead, a replica was installed in Kingsway Gardens.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1904 City and town halls in Lincolnshire Cleethorpes Grade II listed buildings in Lincolnshire