History

Town Hall and market building, 1857-8 by R K Penson, the ground floor originally an open corn market with police cells in enclosed part behind, the upper floor with large meeting room for court sessions, with smaller court office, judge's room and town clerk's office. It replaced a town hall on another site, in use as an ironmonger's warehouse by 1909.
The design for the new town hall was first made in 1856 by David Mathias of Llandovery and tenders advertised, but his design supplanted by Penson's Italianate design, which according to correspondence was altered for the worse in execution. It is conservative for the date but well-related to the square. Repaired in 1893 by Daniel Phillips, county surveyor. Restored 2003.

Exterior

Town hall and market, grey limestone ground floor and dressings, with unpainted render to upper floor and tower, and slate deep-eaved roof on paired brackets. Italianate style, 2 storeys with open arcaded ground floor market, N porch tower with stairs to first floor meeting room, and cells to ground floor W. Three-bay W and E ends with rendered pedimental gables each with blank roundel over broad band. W end has 3 12-pane horned sashes in plain raised surrounds with stone sills and small grey stone sill-corbels over 3-bay arcade with square piers, plain plinths and impost blocks, stone voussoirs and big keystones to arches, the keystones under raised blocks in first floor band. N and S side have similar hornless sashes over arches to 4 bays, but eastern arch infilled for C20 toilets. N side fifth bay has projected belvedere tower, over entrance and similar first floor 12-pane sash to left bay over narrow arched window in raised surround, breaking impost band, and keystone.
Tower has recessed arched doorway with big outer arch matching main arcade, framing inner arch with imposts, double 4-panel doors and 4-pane fanlight. First floor arched window with sunk panel below sill, the glazing with marginal bars and 3 roundels in head. Band above eaves level of main building, and top stage of tower with grey stone roundel each face, 2 bands with big paired fretwork brackets under eaves of shallow-pyramid roof. with tall thin timber open lantern, arched each face with steep metal curved pyramid roof and vane with Prince of Wales feathers. S side is similar without porch tower but fifth bay projected slightly with blank arch, rock-faced stone infill with impost band broken forward under sill of small cambered-headed iron-barred cell-window in raised surround. Sixth bay has no window, plinth, impost band and first floor band carried across.
E end has 3 blank arches to ground floor with band at impost level. First arch has barred cell window over impost band, second has larger cambered-headed window over band and thid with framed ledged door and 3-pane small cambered headed window above band with stone voussoirs. Door has tooled jambs and
slab lintel. First floor has 2 long narrow arched 16-pane windows with stone sills on grey stone corbels and raised surrounds.

Interior

Open market area is stone flagged with 3 iron columns made by T Bright of Carmarthen. C20 brick walling to toilets at back. Stone stairs in tower to upper meeting room with plaster ceiling. Upper floor not inspected.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a well-designed and carefully detailed mid C19 public building in a single Italianate style, a prominent feature in the centre of the town.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• The Town Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q29489552

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

• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]