Huddersfield Town Hall is a municipal facility in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, United Kingdom. It is a

Grade II 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 ...

History

The building was commissioned to replace the offices of the Huddersfield Improvement Commissioners who had initially been based in offices in South Parade, since demolished, from 1848 and then in the Philosophical Hall on Ramsden Street from 1859. The new building, which was designed by John Henry Abbey in the

Classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

, was completed in two stages; the stone was from

Crosland Moor Crosland Moor is a district of the town of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Location It begins 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south west of Huddersfield town centre. Crosland Moor begins at the junction of the Manchester Road A62 and B ...

and the carving was sculpted by Thomas Stocks of

Berry Brow Berry Brow is a semi-rural village in West Yorkshire, England, situated about south of Huddersfield. It lies on the eastern bank of the Holme Valley and partially straddles the A616 road to Honley and Penistone. The village has a Victori ...

. The northern part of the building, which included the municipal offices, was officially opened by Alderman Joseph Woodhead, the mayor, on 26 June 1878. The northern part was designed with a large porch, flanked by two columns with

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

above. The southern part, which included the concert hall and the magistrates' court, was opened by Alderman Thomas Denham, the then-mayor, in October 1881. The southern part of the building was given large

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

columns at the first floor level on the exterior of the building.

Sir Charles Hallé ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

conducted the Huddersfield Choral Society at the official opening in October 1881. The concert organ, which was built by

Henry Willis & Sons Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other countries. Five generations of the Willis family served as principals of th ...

and originally installed in the Albert Hall in

Newport, Wales Newport ( cy, Casnewydd; ) is a city and Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county borough in Wales, situated on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, northeast of Cardiff. With a population of 145,700 at the 2 ...

, was bought on the advice of Sir Walter Parratt who played the new organ at the opening concert recital. The town hall was the meeting place of Huddersfield Municipal Borough which secured

county borough County borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control, similar to the unitary authorities created since the 1990s. An equivalent ter ...

status in 1889. In April 1889 the first annual "Mrs Sunderland Music Festival" took place at Huddersfield Town Hall with the retired soprano

Susan Sunderland Susan Sunderland born Susan Sykes and known as the Calderdale Nightingale (30 April 1819 – 7 May 1905) was a British singer. Some years after she retired the annual Mrs Sunderland Music Festival was organised in Huddersfeld and it is still runn ...

presenting the prizes to the winners. The music festival has expanded since then and in the 21st century it occupies nine days. Princess Elizabeth and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

visited the town hall and waved to the crowd from the balcony on 26 July 1949. After the county borough was abolished under the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

in 1974, it became the headquarters of the

Kirklees Council Kirklees Council is the local authority providing most local government services for the borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council and one of five constituent councils of the West Yorkshire Combined Aut ...

. Following the most recent restoration of the organ in 1997, the leading organist Gordon Stewart attended and played ''Dance Suite for organ'', which had been specially written by the composer

Noel Rawsthorne Christopher Noel Rawsthorne (24 December 1929 – 28 January 2019) was a British liturgical and concert organist and composer of music for his own instrument, as well as choral music. Biography Rawsthorne was born in Birkenhead. At the age of e ...

for the re-opening of the concert hall.

Notes

References

{{City and town halls in West Yorkshire, state=collapsed Buildings and structures in Huddersfield Government buildings completed in 1881 1881 in England City and town halls in West Yorkshire Grade II listed buildings in West Yorkshire

History

See also

Notes

References