Description

TQ 4110 SE LEWES HIGH STREET
10/246 (north side)

25.2.52 Town Hall

GV II

Inn, now Town Hall. C14, rebuilt above ground in the later C18, remodelled
in 1893 by Samuel Denman in an eclectic Queen Anne - Baroque style. Red brick
with much applied red brick and terracotta decoration. Rusticated pilaster
order on ground floor with full entablature to rusticated first floor with
raised panels around windows. Heavy entablature with swags in frieze of centre
and flutings over windows, to first floor. Moulded cornice over second floor
to parapet with recessed blank arched panels. Central aedicular feature over
centre, with curved supports and triangular pediment over. Parapet hides slate
roof with end stacks. 3 storeys; 8 bays, arranged 2 - 3 - 3, the central 3
projecting and narrower. Sashes throughout, those on ground and first floors
without glazing bare. Single thermal window in centre of second floor and tall
window with arched glazing directly below. Other windows all with cornice-
hoods, those flanking centre with triangular pediments also. Arched window
surrounds on ground floor, except to left of centre with plain surrounds.
Arch mouldings in striped brick and stone with keystones carved as masks.
Arches of centre rise from antae which carry bracket pilasters to heavy Doric
entablature with cast-iron lamp holder over entrance. Paired half-glazed doors
in centre. Half-glazed door on second bay from right. Interior: Undercroft
of C14 with arch and tunnel-vault. Staircase: formerly at Slaugham Place, c.1620,
installed in the Inn during the later C18. Almost certainly not in its original
form, it is now an Imperial with a long first flight. High newel posts,
tapering balusters with capitals, much figural carving. The later C19 and
early C20 front of the Town Hall and Corn Exchange can also seen in Fisher
Street.

Listing NGR: TQ4154510154

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Town Hall at Wikipedia
• Town Hall official website
• Wikidata Q26636029

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

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)