Buxton town hall opened 1889, Market Place, Buxton, High Peak, Derbyshire, England, UK, SK17 6EL
Image details
Contributor:
Tony Smith / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
2RJ3YRGFile size:
40 MB (1.4 MB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
3828 x 3648 px | 32.4 x 30.9 cm | 12.8 x 12.2 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
20 August 2023Location:
Market Place, Buxton, High Peak, Derbyshire, England, UK, SK17 6ELMore information:
Buxton Town Hall was opened in 1889 on the Market Place in Buxton, Derbyshire, England. It lies in the town's central Conservation Area overlooking The Slopes. It is a Grade-II-listed building. The building was designed in the style of a French château (with a mansard roof crested with iron railings, Venetian windows and a clocktower with a cupola) by Manchester architect William Pollard (who also designed Buxton College's Gothic-style 'new building' in 1880). After the Market Hall (designed by Henry Currey) was destroyed by a fire in September 1885, the site was selected for the new town hall. The fire brigade with the town's new fire engine was unable to control the fire started by a paraffin lamp in one of the shops in the Market Hall. A competition was held in 1886 for the design of the new town hall. William Pollard's design won the £50 prize and James Salt's local firm was selected to build it at a tender of £8, 900 (Salt also built the Entertainment Stage theatre, which is now the Pavilion Arts Centre). The chairman of the governing Local Board, Edward Milligan, laid the foundation stone in June 1887 (the year of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria). The Marquess of Hartington conducted the official opening of the town hall on 26 June 1889. The clock on the clock tower was a gift from the Duke of Devonshire's tenants in 1889, in honour of Lord Frederick Cavendish, who was stabbed to death aged 45 in the Phoenix Park Murders in Dublin in May 1882 (shortly after arriving to take up his new post as Chief Secretary for Ireland). There is a bust of Lord Cavendish (son of the 7th Duke of Devonshire) on display inside the town hall Current use - High Peak Borough Council, formed in 1974, presently has administrative centres at Buxton Town Hall and Glossop Town Hall. Full Council meetings are usually held in Buxton or at Chapel-en-le-Frith Town Hall