Description

SD 5192 NW & NE KENDAL HIGHGATE (East side) 7 & 8/34 Town Hall, Magistrates Court, & 24-4-51 Call Stone G.V. II

Assembly Rooms, known as White Hall, on sloping site; 1825 by Francis (& George?) Webster. 1859 converted for use as Town Hall by George Webster. 1893 (date in pediment) extended by Stephen Shaw. Hammer-dressed, banded, ground floor; 1st floor ashlar, with sill band. Eaves band and cornice. Highgate elevation has open parapet of turned stone balusters with covered urns on plinth blocks at each end; 2 ornate dormers with clock tower between. Steeply-pitched, hipped, graduated slate roofs. 2 storeys with attic to Highgate, and cellars to Lowther Street, elevations. 3-bays (2:1) added to left on Highgate elevation in 1893: Panelled double doors in richly-decorated doorcase with date and cartouche in open and broken pediment; 2 semicircular-headed windows to left with Call Stone on ground between (part of Stricklandgate Market Cross, from which proclamations have been made for over 3 centuries). 1st floor: Sash over door in architrave with splayed feet and swan-neck pediment, all within segmentally-pedimented surround; 2 sashes in corniced architrave to left. Dormer window in pedimented architrave with splayed feet. 2-stage clock tower (above door) has semicircular-headed louvred openings; swan-neck pediment between stages has cartouche with initial 'B' (for Alderman William Bindloss, Mayor, who gave the bells). 2nd stage has large, circular, clock face in open-pedimented surround. Ogee lead roof is surmounted by small lantern with weather-vane. Former White Hall comprises 3 (symmetrical) right-hand bays (1:1:1) of Highgate elevation and 14 bays (3:8:3) on Lowther Street. Highgate: central, panelled double doors and semicircular fanlight with semicircular-headed window to either side. 1st floor: Pedimented Ionic loggia in antis with cast-iron balustrade; sash in corniced architrave to either side. Central Venetian dormer window, in ornate pedimented surround, added in 1893 (replacing mid Cl9 clock tower). Lowther Street: 3 bays to either end have semicircular-headed windows to ground floor and tall 1st floor sashes; lower ground floor to Magistrates Court (3 eastern bays) has recessed, panelled double door in corniced surround with 2 windows to left. 8 central bays have semicircular-headed windows to both floors. Glazing bars to windows on both elevations. Interior: Richly decorated, mainly 1893 fittings. Hall cornice has wreaths to frieze; staircase with spiral curtail to ornamental iron handrail (rear stair similar). Council Chamber has ornate wooden chimneypiece; Assembly Hall has Doric pilasters carrying coved segmental ceiling. Both Court Room and Assembly Hall have galleries supported on cast-iron pillars.

Listing NGR: SD5149392633

External Links

• Kendal Town Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26605083

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

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
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  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
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  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)