Guildhall, Sandhill

The present guildhall was built on the site of the medieval town hall. Complex building. The east end is chiefly a neo-Grecian remodelling of a medieval building, by Dobson 1823-5. The main structure was built in 1655-8 by Robert Trollope from York, but was given a conventional classical north front in 1794-6 by David Stephenson and William Newton. They replaced the Gothic stair tower with a pedimented entrance front. A classical south front was added in 1809 by John and William Stokoe. King John granted Newcastle Guild Merchant in 1216, and the first reference to a guildhall occurs in 1400. In 1425 Roger Thornton endowed the Hospital of St Catherine, soon to be known as the Maison Dieu (see HER 4871), which he had built at the east end of the Guildhall. The town's accounts mention building the 'new house' in 1509. Grey, writing in 1639, said this was the place where the town's revenues were received, that it was above a weigh house, next to the Maison Dieu, and that the Merchant Venturer's court was above the Maison Dieu. This group of buildings can be seen in the bird's eye view of the town drawn c.1590. In 1655 the Town Council ordered a new town court to be built. Robert Trollope, a mason from York, won the contract and the work was finished by 1660. Buck's view published in 1745 shows the river front with the Merchants' Court a crenellated tower and the Town Court Trollope's long hall with round turrets at each end. What we see today and now know collectively as the Guildhall is the result of these alterations to the western part, and of alterations and an extension by Dobson in 1823-5 to the old Maison Dieu and Merchants' Court at the east end. In a niche on the stairs there is lead statue of Charles II dated to around 1660, maybe by William Larson. The mayor's parlour includes branch motif plasterwork of 1658 and elsewhere there is strapwork plasterwork of the 1680s. An overmantel is carved with biblical and mythical scenes. Conservation Plan - the original layout of the ground floor main block is not known. It is possible that ground levels were not as seen today. The floor was lowered when the main entrance was moved from the north side to the south in 1898. Before c.1880 there were two entrances, both on the north side. The ground floor had a raised timber floor with under-floor heating ducts, so it was raised above the south side pavement. In 1898 the floor was lowered in bays 1-6 to match the south side. Bay 7 remained at the higher level so three steps had to be inserted across the full width of the ground floor. The early floor layout may survive under bay 7. At the west end of the ground floor, the current boiler room was the site of an external urinal. Thicker walls and nibs in the boiler room were once the external face of the building. The early narrow stairs to the mezzanine were replaced in 1898 by a new timber staircase. The larger south-facing room was a writing room, became a scullery in 1910 and around 1966 a kitchen. The smaller north-facing room became a telephone room, and around 1966, a bar. These works were to create a banqueting hall. The earliest depiction of the mezzanine in 1867 shows a single room reached by the narrow staircase, with windows on all sides, including two narrow toilet windows. More toilets were inserted around 1880. In 1898 the mezzanine was divided into two rooms like the floor beneath. The south room became the chamber of commerce once the toilets were removed. The smaller north room was a 'private room', an office by 1910. It was later extended out over an inserted floor in the curved west end of the north aisle (this alteration was removed by 1962). Around 1966 both mezzanine rooms were converted into a Judges Suite for the Court above. A new staircase was inserted up to the back of the Court on the first floor and the Gallery on the second. The first floor is divided lengthwise in two. The southern two0thirds contain the double-height Guildhall and Court. The northern third houses the Landing, Ante Room, Mayor's Chamber, a store room, a cell and the Gallery Stair. The first floor is reached by the Main Stair in the Entrance Block and the west stair at the back of the court. The open Guildhall (bays 4-7) has a black and white chequered marble floor. Bays 1-3 is the Court, raised up above the Guildhall with an arrangement of timber benches, boxes and tables. The room has an exposed timber double hammer-beam roof structure, with shields depicting the guilds on the ends of the beams. There is a large rooflight in the flat part of the ceiling. This has replaced a large roof window present in 1890. The east wall has a large double doors in a Classical surround, giving access into the Merchant Adventurers Hall. Above the doors is a large black and gilt clock on a corbel. There is a cornice around the entire room. The north wall has two pairs of round-arched openings supported on Tuscan columns. One opening leads from the Landing, another to the Ante Room. Seven pairs of rusticated arched openings in the upper part of the north wall form the Gallery. Each Gallery opening has a heavy masonry balustrade. The Ante Room opens off the Guildhall. It is a double-height space. It originally had a double-height Gothic window in the north elevation, which can still be seen on the internal wall. The long narrow Mayor's Chamber is lined in timber panelling, shelving and fixed benches. It has an ornate plaster ceiling and a marble fireplace on the west wall with moulded crest above. Each timber panel on the south wall has a heavily varnished painting of a prominent local building or scene. The panel in the south west corner, which features a painting of the Guildhall, is a hidden door which leads to a short corridor under the Court to an Ancillary Room. The first floor was restored around 1966 but has changed little. The second floor contains the gallery and a flat (above the Mayor's Chamber so possibly used by the Mayor himself). The Gallery divides the flat into an east and west part. The east part contained a sitting room with a fireplace, a bedroom, a kitchen with fireplace, a scullery and store and WC in 1888. The west part of the flat contained 3 bedrooms and a kitchen. The flat retains early windows and shutter joinery. The fireplace is early 20th century. The east extension houses the east stair, a lift installed in 1985, the Merchant Adventurers Hall, offices and toilets. The east end elevation has a large semi-circular Greek Doric façade with 8 columns. This colonnade was created as an open fish market with external railings and sloping fish stalls. The ground floor was blocked-in around 1880 by masonry behind the colonnade with a window in bay 9 to create another ground floor room. A new fish market opened close by in 1887. Offices on the first and second floors were designed for the town clerk, his deputy and the prothonotary or chief court clerk. Oak panelling and fixed cupboards are said to survive. The Merchant Adventurer's Hall is a double-height room on the first floor, accessed from the Guildhall and Court in the main block. Dobson rescued the fittings from the Merchant Adventurer's Hall in the Maison Dieu and rebuilt the room in his extension. The room is panelled with carved oak. It has a decorative plaster ceiling and cornice. The huge chimney-piece is dated 1636 - the oldest fabric in the building. Elaborate carvings include Christ, Judas, Mary Magdalene, Christ restoring sight to a blind man and the story of the loaves and fishes. There are also mythlogical figures and shields of the master of the Company of Merchant Adventurers, and escutcheons with arms of the building's benefactors. The cornice and ribbed ceiling are early 17th century style and feature a fictitious date of 1620, but were created by Dobson. There are two hidden doors in the south-east and north-east corners, leading to the offices. The north aisle was added around 1880. Before this the north elevation of the main block was an open arcade. The openings were closed with windows and a door before 1845. The curved west end of the north aisle has been used as a telephone or telegraph room. The floor was lowered in 1898.