Description

STAFFORD

SJ9223SW MARTIN STREET 590-1/10/69 (North side) 17/12/71 County Buildings and Judge's House (Formerly Listed as: MARTIN STREET County Buildings) (Formerly Listed as: MARKET SQUARE (East side) Shire Hall)

GV II*

County offices, and Judge's house formerly listed with Shire Hall (qv). Judge's house 1799-1802 by Joseph Potter Snr, extended by 1879; offices 1893-5, extended to left in 1899, by HT Hare. Ashlar with parapeted roof; offices of brick with ashlar dressings; graduated slate roof with several stacks. EXTERIOR: Judge's house of 3 storeys, 6-window range with higher 3-window range to right. Rusticated ground floor and top cornice with blocking course. 6-bay range has round-headed arches to loggia, those to right with triple keys and 2 cartouches to spandrels; cast-iron railings with decorative finials, and 2 gates; left part of ground floor has 2 windows with 12-pane sashes and entrance to left end with overlight and side lights to 5-fielded-panel door; part to right, altered 1890s, has 3-light ovolo-mullioned-and-transomed windows with leaded glazing flanking entrance with architrave, triple key and segmental pediment over paired half-glazed doors; right end has 3 double-chamfered cross-mullioned windows. 1st floor has 3 windows with 12-paned horned sashes and 5 with 4-paned sashes and one blind window to centre of right end; similar 6-pane sashes to 2nd floor. Facade to Martin Street (covered for cleaning during survey and previous description partly used): in Baroque revival style with Arts and Crafts influences. Asymmetrical facade of 2 storeys with attic; 8-window centre with projecting wings under hipped roofs, lower gabled pavilion to right end with carriage archway. Top dentilled cornice. Entrance has architrave and segmental pediment with small lights and relief carving. Ground floor has square windows with stepped voussoirs; 1st floor centre has double-transomed mullioned windows with leaded glazing; wing to right has Venetian window with flanking round windows; dormer windows have lead finials. Wings have cupolas with copper cladding. INTERIOR: very rich main spaces with panelling, plasterwork by F.E.E. Schenck, original light fittings etc. Entrance hall has 5-panel doors with segmental hoods, fireplace with Ionic columns and painted overmantel with county arms, coffered saucer dome. Stair leads up to barrel-vaulted landing with flanking groin-vaulted passages with fluted piers with half-columns and bowed timber balustrades. Corridor leads to council chamber, square with central dome, marble Composite columns, niches with figures by W Aumonier, 2 Venetian windows with Ionic pilasters and rich relief work over, other 2 sides have recesses and round windows over, pedimented entrances and contemporary fittings. Oak Room has panelling and fireplace to each end with architraves, pulvinated friezes and cornices, de Morgan style tiles, plaster modillioned cornice and coved ceiling with round windows. White Room has barrel-vaulted ceiling and white painted panelling with Ionic pilasters over dado, fireplace with egg-and-dart moulding, paired marble columns and fluted frieze and cornice, top entablature and bull's eye windows to ends. Library has Ionic corner and saucer dome on pendentives with rich relief plaster work, book cases have cartouches and festoons over, fireplace has de Morgan style tiles and enriched overmantel with painting. Ground floor has groin-vaulted corridor with entrances with eared architraves and fielded-panelled doors with roundels over. A very good example of late C19 civic building retaining complete interior spaces; one of Stafford's best public buildings. The Judge's House was listed, (as part of Shire Hall), on 16.1.51. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Nairn J: Staffordshire: London: 1974-: 244; Victoria County History of Staffordshire: Greenslade MW: A History of Stafford: London: 1979-: 202).

Listing NGR: SJ9223723279

External Links

• County Buildings and Judges House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17531013

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

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas