The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in East Street in the

Middlehaven Middlehaven is the oldest district in Middlesbrough, situated to the north of the current centre, North Yorkshire, England. It is adjacent to the Transporter Bridge and by the River Tees to the north, and the railway (originally) and A66 in the ...

area of

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four cou ...

, England. The structure, which has been vacant since 1996, 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 I ...

. The adjacent clock tower is separately listed.

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the iron-smelting industry, civic leaders decided to commission a town hall. The site chosen was a prominent area in the newly-established market place. The new building was designed by William Lambie Moffatt in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabular ...

, built in red brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1846. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing towards the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has bee ...

. The central bay featured a doorway with a segmental surround and an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

on the ground floor, and a round headed window with an architrave and a keystone on the first floor. The outer bays were fenestrated by

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 ...

ed windows on the ground floor and by round headed windows with architraves and keystones on the first floor. The end bays, which were slightly projected forward, were flanked by

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s supporting a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and a

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'). ...

. A four-stage clock tower was erected behind the town hall; it featured blind round headed windows in the second and third stages and clock faces in the fourth stage with a

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standar ...

-shaped roof above. Internally the principal room was the council chamber on the first floor. The area went on to become a

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in ...

with the town hall as its headquarters in 1853. However, in the early 1880s, civic leaders decided to procure a more substantial town hall on open land in a developing area to the south of the Middlesbrough branch of the

Stockton and Darlington Railway The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected coal mining, collieries near Shildo ...

. The housing that had grown up around the market place in the 19th century was demolished in the slum clearances of the 1950s and a large suburban housing estate known as St Hilda's was established there in the 1970s. The old town hall continued to be used as a public library and as a community events venue for the St Hilda's estate until it was closed by

Middlesbrough Council Middlesbrough Council, formerly known as Middlesbrough Borough Council, is a unitary authority based in Middlesbrough in North Yorkshire, England. The authority has combined some duties with its nearby councils to form the Tees Valley Combined ...

in 1996. Despite a local campaign to retain the estate, most of the 1970s housing was demolished as part of a regeneration project in the early years of the 21st century leaving the town hall derelict and isolated. After works began on the development of a new local digital media, digital technologies, and creative quarter in 2008, local councillors indicated their intention to secure the survival of the old town hall as part of the development of the zone.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1846 City and town halls in North Yorkshire Grade II listed buildings in North Yorkshire Buildings and structures in Middlesbrough