Town Hall, Howard Street

The Town Hall in Saville Street, 1844, was designed by John Dobson. Largely financed by local benefactor Joseph Laing. Informal Tudor style with double L-shaped plan turning the corner of Howard and Saville Streets. Built in two separate parts from 1844-45. The battlemented ranges with decorative gables and at one corner an oriel window below a plainer gable do not harmonise too well. However the building was meant to cater for a variety of functions and the emphasis is less on civic monumentality than on fitting in with the domestic scale of the street {2}. Town Improvement Commissioner's Offices, Savings Bank, Mechanics Institute, Museum and Police Station; taken over as Town Hall 1849. Coursed squared tooled sandstone with ashlar dressings; Lakeland slate roof with stone gable copings. Tudor style. Tall corniced octagonal chimneys. Wrapped around the earlier Poor Law Building (HER 7287). Tudor style of informal design. LISTED GRADE 2