North Shields, Howard Street, Town Hall

HER Number:
4584

District:
N Tyneside

Site Name:
North Shields, Howard Street, Town Hall

Place:
North Shields

Map Sheet:
NZ36NE

Class:
Civil

Site Type: Broad:
Meeting Hall

Site Type: Specific:
Town Hall

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
The Town Hall in Saville Street, 1844, was designed by John Dobson. Largely financed by local benefactor Joseph Laing. Informal Tudor style with double L-shaped plan turning the corner of Howard and Saville Streets. Built in two separate parts from 1844-45. The battlemented ranges with decorative gables and at one corner an oriel window below a plainer gable do not harmonise too well. However the building was meant to cater for a variety of functions and the emphasis is less on civic monumentality than on fitting in with the domestic scale of the street {2}. Town Improvement Commissioner's Offices, Savings Bank, Mechanics Institute, Museum and Police Station; taken over as Town Hall 1849. Coursed squared tooled sandstone with ashlar dressings; Lakeland slate roof with stone gable copings. Tudor style. Tall corniced octagonal chimneys. Wrapped around the earlier Poor Law Building (HER 7287). Tudor style of informal design. LISTED GRADE 2

Easting:
3568

Northing:
6840

Grid Reference:
NZ35686840

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 4584 >> R. Simpson, 1988, North Shields and Tynemouth, p 4 1st edition Ordnance Survey map, 1865, 6 inch scale, Northumberland, 89; T. Faulkner and A. Greg, 1987, John Dobson Newcastle Architect 1787-1865, pp 88-89; Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 14/86; N. Pevsner and I. Richmond, second edition revised by G. McCombie, P. Ryder and H. Welfare, 1992, The Buildings of England - Northumberland, page 527