Description

REIGATE CASTLEFIELD ROAD TQ 2550 SW 12/10000 TOWN HALL GV II

Formerly Town Hall, Court House and fire station, now Town Hall and Citizens Advice Bureau. Designed in 1899 by Hugh McIntosh and Newman and completed in 1901. Arts and crafts style. Red brick in Flemish bond and bath stone dressings, slate roof and. stone stacks. The main building comprised 2 haves built in mirror image, the Court House and Police to right and Municipal buildings to left with an attached Fire Station linked to the left by a verandah. The main building is of 2 storeys with 8 windows to the centre, but large projecting pavilions at either end -with 3 bays. The centre has 8 windows but the penultimate ones on either side are in projecting open pedimented gables on elaborate pilasters with tall round- headed stair-case windows of modified Venetian form. Below these are elaborate cambered arched doorcases with 3 giant keystone and panelled pilasters. Above are stone panels with the words "Municipal Buildings" over left side entrance and "Court House and Police" over right side entrance. Set back double doors with a side light and letter box with stone swags and mash ornament above the municipal buildings entrance. Parapet with moulded coping and cornice. 1st-floor has 6-round-headed cross casements with strapwork design in the tympanum and stained glass roundels. Ground floor has 4 cambered headed mullioned and transomed casements; 5 light to centre and 2 light at ends. Projecting pavilions of 2-storeys 3-windows have hipped roofs with octagonal lead cupolas with wooden louvres and copper finials. Deep bracket eaves cornice. 1st floor has 3 round-headed Venetian type windows with swansneck pediments to centre. Right hand pavilion has additionally a basement with similar windows to the ground floor which are cambered casements. Right side elevation has an elaborate brick and stone chimneystack and similar windows to the front of the pavilion@. Rear elevation has a series of gables with round headed windows to 1st floor and later central extension in matching materials of 2 storeys and attics; 3 bays with hipped roof, square cupola and similar windows to the front. Attached to the main building by a brick cambered arched verandah (now glazed in) is the former Fire Station now Citizens Advice Bureau built in identical materials. 2 storeys and attics; 3 windows. Front has hipped slate roof. Central attic gable supported on pilasters which are in turn supported on a broken cornice. Cambered 3-light sash to attic and 3 similar ,windows to 1st floor. Ground floor has 3 cambered 4-light windows and central cambered opening for fire engines, glazed in C20. Attached to the right hand corner is the principal feature of the building, a 4-storey tower with pagoda-style stone roof. The top stage is open with large bracket cornice, corner piers, 2 columns with Ionic derived capitals and stone balustrading. End quoins. Mainly slit windows, apart from 1st floor 3-light cambered opening elevated by pilasters. The interior is particularly opulent to the Municipal buildings side. Ground floor corridors have 2'tone green glazed tiles. Staircase has white marble balustrading and square post with elaborate brass lamp. Side have dado panelling and red marble. Original Council Chamber has particularly fine Art Nouveau decoration. Windows have multi-coloured stain glass with rose motif. Stone fireplace has cambered arch with 8 masks of children'and above the emblem of Reigate flanked by half-columns. Half-paneled walls with pilastered doorcase. Ovolo moulded plaster band above. Ceiling of crown- post and bracket cornice with swags between. Most unusual deep plastered frieze has a panel with Mercury on one side and Venus 'on the other with young girls in contemporary dress representing various virtues including Industry, Agriculture, Painting, Sculpture, Music, Architecture, Justice and the Martial Arts. Large pilastered oval ceiling rose with masks and swags. Doors have elaborate brass finger boards with,heart motif. Marble dado panelling to 1st floor corridor and tessellated pavement. Mayors Parlour has_elaborate -ceiling roses. Members cloakroom has wooden fireplace with Art Nouveau foliate motifs. Court House and Police side is more restrained with almost identical main staircase of painted wood and tiled dado. Staircase window has stained glass window with Royal Coat of Arms. Former Magistrates Court has oak panelling, paired bracket cornice and moulded beams on corbels. 4 police cells survive in the basement. I having complete iron door with spyhole and food hatch.

Listing NGR: TQ2539550459

External Links

• Reigate Town Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26551495

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990