Description

BURNLEY

SD8332SE MANCHESTER ROAD
906-1/19/96 (West side)
29/09/77 Town Hall with attached railings

GV II

Town hall with police station, Magistrate's Court and public
baths; the police station and court now used for storage and
the baths demolished 1975. 1884-8. By Holtom & Fox of
Dewsbury. Sandstone ashlar (rear wings of coursed sandstone
rubble), with slate roofs and copper-clad dome. Renaissance
style. Large irregular rectangular plan.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys over basements, plus a central turret,
1:3:1:3:1 windows, symmetrical, the centre and ends projected;
with channelled rustication to the basement and ground floor,
a plain frieze and a cornice over each floor (that at 1st
floor dentilled and that at 2nd floor modillioned),
balustraded parapets and a domed clock turret over the centre
(similar turrets designed for the ends were not built). The
centre has a raised entrance with set-in Ionic columns of
polished pink granite which have sandstone capitals, flanking
a richly-carved round-headed archway with set-in Ionic
colonnettes and elaborate wrought-iron gates; a segmental
balustraded balcony at 1st floor with hexastyle composite
columns (paired and single) and a round-headed inner doorway
with French windows; a simpler and shorter feature at 2nd
floor with tetrastyle Tuscan columns flanked by carved
cartouches; a carved pediment and triangular parapet with
roundels; and on the roof a clock turret with chamfered
corners, a frieze enriched with festoons, a moulded cornice
and a clock-stage with large circular clock-faces and a copper
dome with a wooden domical finial. The projected end bays have
(inter alia) 1st-floor balconies with balustrades and
composite-columned architraves which have carved segmental
pediments, flanked by short coved niches, and pilastered 2nd
floor windows with eared architraves flanked by similar
niches. The 3-bay intermediate ranges have recessed
square-headed windows at ground floor, colonnades of composite
semi-columns at 1st floor containing tall round-headed windows
with balustrades, shorter square-headed windows with pilasters
and balustrades at 2nd floor.
INTERIOR: entrance lobby with wooden former enquiry kiosk on
left side; entrance hall at ground floor and concourse area of
civic suite at 1st floor with original mosaic floors by Maw &
Co. of Shropshire, dados of glazed tile in buff and green with
brown and red bands, large windows of stained and painted

glass, Tuscan columns at ground floor and Ionic columns at 1st
floor; open-well stone staircase with cast-iron newels and
foliated wrought-iron balustrading; elaborately carved
architraves to doorways.
Council chamber has very fine coved and coffered ceiling, the
panels of the coving filled with coats of arms of principal
Lancashire towns, and a painted lettered frieze carried round
the whole room recording the principal dates of Burnley's
civic history (beginning with "1293-4 first charter for market
and fair...1846 waterworks acquired..." and ending "1901
tramways acquired"); but wall cladding and furnishings
altered. Mayor's Parlour, Reception Room retain original
panelling, doors, fireplaces, moulded plaster cornices and
ceilings.
Former magistrates' court to rear (latterly used as club room)
now lacks all furnishings and fittings except panelled reredos
to Bench and coved ceiling with large rectangular skylight.
Original police cells survive on floor below this (some
unaltered).
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the entrance steps are protected by
convex balustrades, from each of which run elaborate
wrought-iron railings protecting the basement area.
Forms group with Mechanics building adjoining to the right
(qv).

Listing NGR: SD8397032386

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Burnley Town Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26537489

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

• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)