Description

BISHOP AUCKLAND

NZ2130 MARKET PLACE
634-1/8/96 Town Hall
20/09/72

GV II*

Town hall and market, with reading room and assembly room,
originally incorporating 2 shops. In process of conversion to
community centre and library. 1860-62. By JP Jones. For Bishop
Auckland Town Hall and Market Company Ltd. Design modified by
John Johnstone of Newcastle. C20 internal alterations.
MATERIALS: coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings,
and Welsh slate roof with bands of fishscale.
PLAN: Gothic Revival style. Symmetrical.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, 6x8 windows. Paired 2-centred arches in
central bays have wide pilasters with elaborate foliage
capitals. Left arch blocked and containing 2-light window with
2-centred heads in stone lintel. 3 large moulded stone
brackets over pilasters support first-floor pierced stone
balcony. Former shops flanking entrance each have 4-panelled
double doors and overlights flanked by paired windows, all
with shouldered heads and nookshafts. First-floor string.
Aprons and sloping sills to tall first-floor windows which
have pointed arches and plate tracery, with 2 shouldered
lights below transom formed by impost string on which
dripmoulds rest. Central pair open onto balcony. Eaves corbel
table.
Steeply pitched hipped roofs over outer pairs of bays linked
by ridge of principal roof with high central octagonal louvred
lantern, with 8 lucarnes at base of tall spirelet. Gabled
clock faces in east and west fronts of base to lantern. Tall
gabled 2-light dormers in main roof have roundels in gable
peaks; lancets in 3 stepped lucarnes in flanking hipped roofs
which have ornamental cast-iron crestings. Long left return in
similar style but without central emphasis.
INTERIOR shows ribbed quadripartite vaults, with leaf
terminals, to entrance arches. Central covered market hall has
small shop units opening off, most altered but some with
cast-iron piers visible, and one with small corner cast-iron
fire surround. Main and subsidiary stairs have iron balusters
with hollow-moulded corners supporting moulded handrail,
wreathed at foot on fluted newel. Hall along front on first
floor has wave-moulded frieze and hammer-beam roof, shallow
north apse with fluted Corinthian pilasters and shallow
segmental head to proscenium arch. Proscenium arch in front,
c1960 is to be removed in current restoration. Council chamber
inserted over covered market has borough arms in stained glass
of windows high in wall. Interior being altered at time of
survey (1991).
(Builder: April 1860: 210-211; ; Views of Bishop Auckland
1860-67: UD/BA/238).

Listing NGR: NZ2115730135

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Bishop Auckland Town Hall Arts Centre at Wikipedia
• Bishop Auckland Town Hall Arts Centre official website
• Wikidata Q4917492

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

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)