County Hall, Northampton
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The County Hall is a municipal facility on George Row in
Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
,
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...
, England, which was the headquarters of
Northamptonshire County Council Northamptonshire County Council was the county council for Northamptonshire in England from 1889 to 2021. It was originally created in 1889, reformed in 1974, and abolished in 2021. The headquarters of the council was County Hall, Northampton, ...
until it was dissolved in 2021. It 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 ...
. The building is adjacent to the former
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 ...
which is now used as a Tourist Information Centre.


History

The building is an 18th-century house which was rebuilt to a design by James Milne in 1845. 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 the meeting place of
Northamptonshire County Council Northamptonshire County Council was the county council for Northamptonshire in England from 1889 to 2021. It was originally created in 1889, reformed in 1974, and abolished in 2021. The headquarters of the council was County Hall, Northampton, ...
. It was remodelled to a design by Edmund Law to accommodate a council chamber in 1890 and further altered to a design by
Sir Aston Webb Sir Aston Webb, (22 May 1849 – 21 August 1930) was a British architect who designed the principal facade of Buckingham Palace and the main building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among other major works around England, many of them in par ...
to create more meeting rooms in 1900. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing George Row; the four left hand bays contained round headed
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 windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...
s and right hand bay featured a wooden doorway; each of the bays was flanked by
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 wit ...
pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s on the ground floor; there were five sash windows with alternating segmental and triangular
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 ...
s flanked by
Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...
half columns on the first floor. The principal rooms were the council chamber and a reception room known as the "Octagon room". As the county council's responsibilities grew, it needed more office space than was available in County Hall. It acquired a former gaol (built 1791–1794) immediately south-east of the Sessions Room and County Hall, and converted that to be offices. In 1939 the council built a large neo-Georgian office building to the east of the old gaol, linked to the older buildings by corridors to the rear. The new building was called County Offices and had its main frontage onto Guildhall Road. It was designed by the county architect, George Henry Lewin, and was faced in Ketton stone. The county council was granted a
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 ...
whilst the building was under construction, and the arms were carved into the stonework above the main doorway. The outbreak of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
meant that no official opening ceremony was held for the County Offices. The county council's administrative responsibilities continued to grow, and by the early 21st century its offices were spread across some twelve buildings around the town. In 2013, it decided to procure a single administration centre in which council officers and their departments would be co-located on a derelict site just south of County Hall. The new building was named "One Angel Square". The building was designed by BDP, built by
Galliford Try Galliford Try plc is a British construction company based in Uxbridge, England. It was created through a merger in 2000 of two businesses: Try Group, founded in 1908 in London, and Galliford, founded in 1916. Formerly involved in housebuilding ...
at a cost of £53 million and officially opened by the
Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government The secretary of state for housing, communities and local government is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom and is the Cabinet minister responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction of the Ministry of Ho ...
,
Sajid Javid Sir Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the ...
, in October 2017. The county council subsequently announced the sale and lease back of One Angel Square to Canada Life Investments, in order to raise funds for the provision of services, in February 2018. The county council announced in June 2018 that it was considering selling County Hall but the proposed transaction was subsequently abandoned. The county council continued to use the council chamber at County Hall for meetings until the council was abolished in March 2021.


References

{{reflist Grade II* listed buildings in Northamptonshire N Government buildings completed in 1845 Buildings and structures in Northampton