Town Hall

Alcester Town Hall is the town hall of Alcester, Warwickshire, England. It is a grade I listed building. History The lower part of the two-storey hall was built in 1618, when the Lord of the Manor Sir Fulke Greville gave £300 for the construction of a Market Hall for the town. The lower floor originally consisted of a stone colonnade. The architect for the lower part was Simon White of Chipping Campden. The upper floor was intended originally to also be made of stone, but as this was found to be too costly, it was instead built from timber covered with plaster, and was completed in 1641. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto Church Street; each of the bays was flanked by short Tuscan order columns; there were three sash windows on the first floor. The open lower floor was originally used as a covered market. In 1765 the Lord of the Manor, Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick, agreed to revoke all market tolls payable to him on the condition that the hall was kept in good repair by the people of Alcester. In 1813 Francis Ingram-Seymour-Conway, 2nd Marquess of Hertford became Lord of the Manor and improvements included a horse drawn fire engine which was installed in the ground floor of the building. The village lock-up, which had been located in the south west corner of the building and had been used for petty criminals, became redundant in 1850 when a dedicated police station opened in Henley Street. In 1873 Francis Seymour, 5th Marquess of Hertford filled in the colonnade so that the ground floor could be used as a courtroom for petty sessions. On the Church Street frontage, the centre section of four bays then featured round headed windows and doorways with fanlights were inserted in the end bays (these have since been removed). It was around this time that the ceiling in the first floor room was modified to create the present hammerbeam roof.