County Hall is a municipal building in Cross Street,

Beverley Beverley is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located north-west of Hull city centre. At the 2021 census the built-up area of the town had a population of 30,930, and the smaller civil parish had ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

, England. County Hall, which is the headquarters of

East Riding of Yorkshire Council East Riding of Yorkshire Council is the local authority for the East Riding of Yorkshire, a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area within the larger ceremonial county of the same name. The council has been under no overall cont ...

, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

Following the implementation of the

Local Government Act 1888 The Local Government Act 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41) was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales. It came into effect ...

, which established county councils in every county, it became necessary to find a meeting place for the East Riding County Council. Initially meetings of the county council were held in the

Sessions House A sessions house in the United Kingdom was historically a courthouse that served as a dedicated court of quarter sessions, where criminal trials were held four times a year on quarter days. Sessions houses were also used for other purposes to do w ...

and in the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commo ...

. After deciding the old Sessions House and Guildhall were inadequate for their needs, county leaders chose to procure a new county headquarters: the site selected in Cross Street had been occupied by the former

Mechanics Institute Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts (especially in the Australian colonies), were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult ed ...

. A new purpose-built building, designed by R. G. Smith and Frederick Stead Brodrick in the Flemish Renaissance style, was completed in 1891. The design involved a main frontage with eleven bays facing onto Cross Street; the left-hand section of five bays, which was symmetrical, featured an elaborately carved stone doorway on the ground floor flanked by

composite order The Composite order is a mixed order, combining the volutes of the Ionic order capital with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian order.Henig, Martin (ed.), ''A Handbook of Roman Art'', p. 50, Phaidon, 1983, In many versions the composite o ...

columns, with three tall

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 sup ...

windows on the first floor; the right-hand section of six bays, which was asymmetrical, featured a porch flanked by

Doric order The Doric order is 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 t ...

columns and topped with a

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

containing the county

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

, with tall mullion windows on the first and second floors. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber which contained fine furniture carved by the wood carver and cabinet maker, James Elwell. In the 1930s the novelist,

Winifred Holtby Winifred Holtby (23 June 1898 – 29 September 1935) was an English novelist and journalist, now best known for her novel '' South Riding'', which was posthumously published in 1936. Biography Holtby was born to a prosperous farming family in ...

, attended council meetings in the council chamber to obtain inspiration for her book '' South Riding'' which won the

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...

in 1936. Following the abolition of East Riding County Council in 1974, the building became the offices of

Humberside County Council Humberside County Council was the county council of the non-metropolitan county of Humberside in northern England. History Humberside was a non-metropolitan county governed by Humberside County Council and nine non-metropolitan district councils ...

. A large modern office block, intended to create additional facilities for the county council, was built on Champney Road and opened in 1983. Local government was reorganised again, with the abolition of Humberside County Council in 1996, and county hall became the offices of the new

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

at that time. The council chamber was refurbished in late 2019.

References

{{reflist Grade II listed buildings in the East Riding of Yorkshire Beverley B Government buildings completed in 1881