Description

GLOUCESTER

SO8318NW EASTGATE STREET
844-1/8/109 (North side)
12/03/73 No.23
Guildhall

GV II

Guildhall, now offices and arts centre. 1890-2. George H Hunt
for Gloucester City Council; ground floor altered c1987 for
conversion to offices, the upper floors converted to arts
centre c1991 with minor alterations. Ashlar, slate roof.
French Renaissance style.
PLAN: entrance to ground floor office on left, entrance to
arts centre on right with lobby to principal staircase leading
to a central atrium chamber on first floor giving access to
former council chamber, mayor's parlour, the sheriff's room,
and members' room, etc.
EXTERIOR: three storeys and basement; five bays with a slight
projection to the outer bays (1:3:1); on the ground floor
banded rustication above a chamfered offset plinth and ashlar
course capped by a moulded string course, at first-floor level
an entablature. Central doorway in a projecting frame is
flanked by panelled pilasters and consoles supporting a hood
formed by the projection to the entablature. On each side of
the doorway a later, inserted, display window and in each end
bay a doorway in opening with raised flat arch projecting
keystone and panelled double doors; the taller first floor
treated as a piano nobile, with an applied, recessed Ionic
order to the three central bays, and with entablature with
modillion cornice also slightly recessed between above the
central bays, in each of the central bays a large semicircular
arched opening framed by an outer order of pilasters and
archivolt and in each French doors with fanlight leading onto
a stone balustraded balcony, the central balcony above the
projecting hood over the central doorway on the ground floor,
in each end bay a large opening with flat head, moulded
architrave and cornice and French casements above balustrades
within the jambs; in the attic storey the three central bays
defined by shaped piers supporting a crowning cornice, in each
central bay a circular window with moulded architrave
supported by boldly sculpted putti; in each end bay a slightly
projecting centre framed by similar piers and a pediment at
the level of the crowning cornice, with a two-light window
with sashes framed by architraves; on each side of the
projections an elaborately carved trophy, above the cornice a
parapet with piers crowned by vases.

INTERIOR: the staircase remodelled c1930; all the principal
rooms on the first floor retain original joinery and
plasterwork of high quality; the first floor atrium has a
three-bay Ionic colonnade at either end, blank arcades on the
side walls with decorative plaster spandrels, a coffered
ceiling and a mosaic floor; the former council room to rear
has a clerestory roof and elaborate joinery and plasterwork.

Listing NGR: SO8325318495

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Gloucester Guildhall at Wikipedia
• Gloucester Guildhall official website
• Wikidata Q18347301

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

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  For the Record