The Old Town Hall was a municipal building in the High Street in Rickmansworth, a town in Hertfordshire, in England. The upper floors have been demolished and the ground floor is now in retail use.
| Old Town Hall | |
|---|---|
.png) The building, with the arched doorway on the extreme left, in around 1910 | |
| Location | High Street, Rickmansworth |
| Coordinates | 51°38′19″N 0°28′10″W / 51.6387°N 0.4694°W |
| Built | 1869 |
| Architect | Arthur Allum |
| Architectural style(s) | Gothic Revival style |
  Shown in Hertfordshire | |
History
editIn the mid-1860s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company, known as the Rickmansworth Town Hall Company, to finance and commission a town hall for the town.[1] The site they selected, on the south side of the High Street, was occupied by the old Market Hall, which had become very dilapidated.[2][3] The site was donated to the directors by the lord of the manor, John Saunders Gilliat, whose residence was at The Cedars in Rickmansworth.[4]
The new building was designed by Arthur Allum of Westminster in the Gothic Revival style, built in red brick with Bath stone dressings at a cost of £1,200 and was officially opened in December 1869.[5][6] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of two bays facing onto the High Street. The left-hand bay featured an arched doorway with an archivolt, surmounted by a lamp which projected over the pavement. The right-hand bay on the ground floor and both bays on the first floor were fenestrated by casement windows with stone surrounds. There was an additional storey in the left-hand bay at attic level, fenestrated by a small square window and surmounted by a stepped gable with a finial.[7][8] Internally, the principal room was an assembly hall, which was 56 feet (17 m) long and 27 feet (8.2 m) wide and which featured a hammerbeam roof.[6] It was used for dances, concerts, lectures, and monthly meetings of the Penny Reading Society.[9]
An inquiry was held in February 1896 at the hall, to consider whether to establish an urban district.[10] This proposal went ahead,[11][12] and the first meeting of Rickmansworth Urban District Council was held at the Town Hall on 16 April 1898.[13] In 1912, the assembly hall was converted into an auditorium to facilitate its use as a cinema known as the Electric Picture Playhouse, with a capacity of 300 people. It was later renamed the Electric Palace, but it closed as a cinema in 1927.[14]
Meanwhile, the urban district council relocated to the former home of William Penn at Basing House, on the north side of the High Street in 1930.[15][16] The auditorium behind the old town hall was later demolished, along with the upper part of the town hall facade.[17] The lower part of the facade was altered to create two shop fronts, while a two-storey office block was built on the site of the auditorium behind.[18][19]
References
edit- ^ Report of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies. House of Commons. 23 March 1869. p. 32.
- ^ Pickard, Michael (8 June 2009). "At the heart of the paper trail". Watford Observer. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ^ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1900. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
- ^ Bayne, Robert (1870). Historical Sketch of Rickmansworth and the Surrounding Parishes. Watson and Hazell. p. 5.
- ^ "Rickmansworth – a chronology". 3 Rivers Museum. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ^ a b Provincial News. The Builder. 29 January 1870. p. 92.
- ^ Harlow, Steve (30 April 2020). "The Continued History of Rickmansworth". Tarrattarrat. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
- ^ "Cinema past in Rickmansworth with Odeon and Picture House". Watford Observer. 9 March 2024. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
- ^ Jacques, Adrienne; Jacques, Christopher (1996). Rickmansworth: A Pictorial History. Phillimore. p. 41. ISBN 978-1860770272.
- ^ Shall Rickmansworth be an Urban District? Harrow and Wembley Observer, 28 February 1896, page 3
- ^ Rickmansworth: The coming urban council, Harrow and Wembley Observer, 24 July 1896, page 6
- ^ Annual Report of the Local Government Board. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 1898. p. 289. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
The County of Hertford (Rickmansworth) Confirmation Order, 1897, coming into operation 15 April 1898
- ^ Rickmansworth Urban Council, Watford Observer, 23 April 1898, page 3
- ^ Cooper, John (2014). Rickmansworth, Croxley Green & Chorleywood Through Time. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1445640839.
- ^ Historic England. "Basing House (1100850)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
- ^ Rickmansworth: Basing House, Buckinghamshire Examiner (Chesham), 14 November 1930, page 1
- ^ "Electric Palace". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
- ^ Eyles, Allen; Skone, Keith (2002). Cinemas of Hertfordshire. University of Hertfordshire Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0954218904.
- ^ "Character Detached Office Building" (PDF). Braiser Freeth. Retrieved 21 April 2024.