| Stockton-on-Tees Town Hall | |
| Coordinates: | 54.5641°N -1.3129°W |
| Location: | Stockton-on-Tees |
| Built: | 1735 |
| Designation1: | Grade II* Listed Building |
| Designation1 Offname: | Town Hall, High Street |
| Designation1 Date: | 19 January 1951 |
| Designation1 Number: | 1139975 |
Stockton-on-Tees Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. The building, which is the meeting place of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building.
The first structure on the site, traditionally referred to a town house, was completed in around 1100 and rebuilt in the late 15th century.[1] A purpose-built tolbooth was erected just south of the original building in the late 17th century: it was arcaded on the ground floor to allow markets to be held and there was a lock up in the building to accommodate prisoners, as well as a meeting room on the first floor and adjoining accommodation to allow visitors to stay.[1] The building was owned by the Bishops of Durham who collected rents from use of the market stalls and the rooms above.[1]
The current structure, which was designed in the Georgian style, was completed in 1735. The old tolbooth was demolished in 1744 to allow the new building to be extended.[2] [3] The design for the new building involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing the market square; the left hand bay featured a round headed doorway flanked by engaged Doric order columns with the borough coat of arms placed above the doorway. The side elevations displayed Venetian windows and the north elevation featured a doorway in the central bay and five round headed casement windows on the first floor. At roof level there was a short clock tower with a belfry surrounded by Ionic order columns supporting a small balcony; the hour-striking clock currently in place in the turret was installed by Thwaites & Reed of Clerkenwell in 1805.[4] A piazza was created to the north of the building and a market cross designed by John Shout was erected there in 1768.[2] [5]
At a meeting in the town hall in 1810, the recorder of Stockton, Leonard Raisbeck, used the opportunity to advocate the need for a railway to connect the borough with the more central parts of the country.[1] The lock-up became redundant after a police station, complete with cells, was completed in West Row in 1851.[2] The building was refurbished in the 1880s and the piazza was covered over with an iron canopy in 1890.[2]
Stockton-on-Tees Municipal Borough Council acquired the building from the Bishops of Durham in 1939 in order to secure continued access to their meeting place[1] and then hosted a visit by Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, on 4 June 1956.[6] [7] [8] Municipal buildings, which were commissioned to provide additional office space for council officers and their departments, were built nearby, in Church Road, and completed in 1961.[9] The town hall ceased to be local seat of government when the short-lived County Borough of Teesside was formed in 1967:[10] however, its main role as a civic meeting place was restored when Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council was formed in 1974.[11] An extensive programme of refurbishment works was completed in 2011.[12]