Maidstone Town Hall

Maidstone Town Hall is a municipal building in Middle Row, Maidstone, Kent, England. The town hall, which is a meeting place of Maidstone Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building.[1]

Maidstone Town Hall
Maidstone Town Hall in 2013
LocationMiddle Row, Maidstone
Coordinates51.2734°N 0.5221°E / 51.2734; 0.5221
Built1763
Architectural style(s)Neoclassical style
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameThe Town Hall
Designated30 July 1951
Reference no.1086305
Shown in Kent

History

The first courthouse in the town was erected, for the purposes of hearings of the quarter sessions and assizes, in the Middle Row in 1587.[2] Civic leaders held their meetings in a room on the first floor the lower courthouse.[3] In 1608, a second courthouse, which known as the "upper courthouse", was erected a few yards to the east of the original courthouse, which was subsequently referred to as the "lower courthouse".[4] The upper courthouse was generally used for the assizes while the quarter sessions continued to held in the lower courthouse.[5]

In the late 18th century civic leaders decided to erect a new town hall on the site of the lower courthouse which was duly demolished in 1759. [6][lower-alpha 1] The new town hall was financed from a combination of public subscription and contributions from the justices.[8] It was designed in the neoclassical style, built with Portland stone on the ground floor and red brick above and was completed in 1763.[1][9] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the High Street; it originally had arcading on the ground floor to allow markets to be held; a council chamber with pedimented windows was established on the first floor.[1] The central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, was topped with a pediment from which a clock projected.[1] There was a cupola with Ionic order columns, which was capped with a gilded ball and a weather vane, at roof level.[1] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber, which featured a fine Rococo ceiling.[1] A prison cell was established above the council chamber: prisoners who were detained there while awaiting deportation applied graffiti to the walls.[10] The gaol was closed in around 1827, apparently after the escape of a prisoner being held there,[11] and the arcading on the ground floor was enclosed to create a police court sometime after 1835.[12]

By 1898, the town hall was already too small for the needs of the growing town, with the local directory stating that the building was "a miserable specimen of the poverty-stricken architecture of those days, possessing no room adequate to the needs of a large town, and necessitating the scattering of the offices of the Corporation."[12] However, the town hall remained the main meeting place of Maidstone Municipal Borough Council until council offices were established at Tonbridge Road in the 1960s,[13] and the council chamber in the town hall is still used by its successor body, Maidstone Borough Council, for committee meetings.[14]

See also

Notes
  1. The upper courthouse was also in a very poor state and it was demolished in 1783.[7]

References
  1. Historic England. "The Town Hall (1086305)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  2. Russell, J. M. (1881). The History of Maidstone. Simpkin. p. 277.
  3. Russell 1881, p. 207
  4. Russell 1881, p. 279
  5. Russell 1881, p. 281
  6. Russell 1881, p. 287
  7. Russell 1881, p. 329
  8. Clark, Peter; Murfin, Lyn (1995). "Chapter 5: The Late Georgian Town". The History of Maidstone: The Making of a Modern County Town. Alan Sutton Publishing. p. 106. ISBN 978-0750911030.
  9. Hasted, Edward (1798). "'The town and parish of Maidstone: Town and manors', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent". Canterbury: British History Online. pp. 260–307. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  10. "Maidstone Town Hall – Historic Site in Maidstone". Visit Maidstone. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  11. "Maidtone Town Gaol". Prison History. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  12. "Maidstone Town Centre Conservation Area Appraisal" (PDF). Maidstone Borough Council. p. 63. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  13. "No. 45222". The London Gazette. 30 October 1970. p. 12026.
  14. "Maidstone Borough Council events page". Retrieved 30 December 2020.
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