County Hall is a municipal building in High Street,

Newport, Isle of Wight Newport is the county town of the Isle of Wight, an island county off the south coast of England. The town is slightly north of the centre of the island, located in the civil parish of Newport and Carisbrooke. It has a quay at the head of the n ...

, England. It is the headquarters of the

Isle of Wight Council Isle of Wight Council, known between 1890 and 1995 as Isle of Wight County Council, is the local authority for the Isle of Wight in England. Since 1995 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, being a non-metropolitan cou ...

History

Following the implementation in 1890 of the Local Government Board's Provisional Order Confirmation (No. 2) Act 1889 ( 52 & 53 Vict. c. clxxvii), which split a new County of the Isle of Wight out of Hampshire, it became necessary to find offices for the new

Isle of Wight County Council Isle of Wight Council, known between 1890 and 1995 as Isle of Wight County Council, is the local authority for the Isle of Wight in England. Since 1995 it has been a unitary authority, being a county council which also performs the functions of ...

. The "Swan Hotel" in the High Street, Newport was acquired for this purpose in 1898. After deciding that this arrangement was inadequate for their needs in the context of the increasing responsibilities of county councils, county leaders chose to demolish the existing premises, acquire some adjoining properties and procure a purpose-built county headquarters on the same site. The new building, which was designed by Gutteridge and Gutteridge of

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

in the Neo-Georgian style, was officially opened by the former

Treasurer of the Household The Treasurer of the Household is a member of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, Royal Household of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, Sovereign of the United Kingdom. The position is usually held by one of the government deputy Chief ...

, Lord Bayford, on 19 October 1938. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of nine bays facing the High Street; the central section featured a doorway with a rectangular

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

on the ground floor; there was a tall window spanning the first and second floors above. The left and right sections were faced with stone on the ground floor and featured balconies on the first floor. 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 ...

, flanked by figures depicting

Public service A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...

and

Knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...

, which had been designed by John Hammond Harwood of the Sheffield College of Arts, were erected above the doorway. Pevsner described the design as "moderately civic-monumental". An 18th century residential property known as "Hazards" was demolished to make way for a modern extension with a blue and white chequer pattern which was built to the east of the main building in 1969. Following a change of name of the former county council to

in 1995, County Hall became the home 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 ...

. After

Citizens Advice Citizens AdviceCitizens Advice is the operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, which is the umbrella charity for a wider network of local advice centres. The abbreviation CitA is sometimes used to refer to this natio ...

established a new advice centre in the building in November 2018, the

Princess Royal Princess Royal is a substantive title, title customarily (but not automatically) awarded by British monarchs to their eldest daughters. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal famil ...

visited the centre and received a demonstration of the centre's new video conferencing system in October 2020.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures on the Isle of Wight N Government buildings completed in 1938 Newport, Isle of Wight