Description

HARWICH

TM2632NW CHURCH STREET
609-1/2/35 (South West side)
25/09/51 Guildhall

GV I

Town hall, late C17 and 1769. Red Flemish-bond brickwork with
stone quoins and dressings and Welsh slate hipped roof behind
parapets. 3 storeys and cellars with 2 canted bays rising full
height.
EXTERIOR: on front elevation the parapet has recessed panels.
The canted bays have double-hung sash windows with small
panes, stone sills and rubbed brick arches with keystones.
Emphatic stone cornice, below parapet, projecting stone bands
at storey heights and stone quoins. Ground floor has central
doorcase of 1769 with open pediment, supported on clustered
attached shafts of Batty Langley-style Gothick. These enclose
an ogee profile fanlight and 6-panel door.
On the first floor is an aedicule with semicircular-headed
open pediment enclosing a C19 stained-glass window. On the
second floor are the Royal Arms (Victoria) in painted plaster
under Baroque open double curved pediment. Large box-like
building with English bond brickwork on rear and lower part of
the flank elevations. Large C19 extension on the rear.
INTERIOR: ground floor probably incorporates part of building
of 1673 and may include fabric of former Bear Inn. Exposed
spine beam and bridging joist of softwood with quadrant
chamfers, lamb's tongue stops with extra indentation usually
of first half of C17. Tuscan arcade of 3 bays opens to the
staircase with dosseret blocks above capitals, board-like
3-centred arches and curious bases perhaps compatible with a
late C17 date.
One ground-floor room, formerly a prison, has late C18
boarding-clad walls with prisoner-incised graffiti of ships, a
windmill and a 'daisy' protective device. A fireplace here has
segmental relieving arch, truncated mantel beam reused and C18
overmantel painting of figures. Between entrance hall and
stairwell is an elliptical painted timber arch on panelled
pilasters. The well staircase has turned balusters, console
tread ends and side walls are panelled with half-Tuscan
columns at each level change.
The first floor Council Chamber has C19 panelling with
purpose-made fittings. An open screen of clustered shafted
columns is contemporary with or imitative of the doorcase. An
internal Venetian window, between Council Chamber and
stairwell has an elliptical arched head, heavy entablature,
Doric pilasters, triple keystones and Gothick glazing pattern.
Above is a plastered arch of radiating 'voussoirs' and
staircase well flanks are ashlared.

Listing NGR: TM2605632584

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Guildhall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17536972

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

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)