Listed Building: THE GUILDHALL (412555)

POOLE SZ0190NW MARKET STREET 958-1/16/115 (North East side) 14/06/54 The Guildhall GV II* Formerly known as: Old Guildhall MARKET PLACE. Guildhall, with partly open market on ground floor. Dated 1761. For John Gultson and Col. Thomas Calcraft, MPs for Poole, their names inscribed on tablets on the returns; restored 1994. Brick with limestone and stucco dressings and a hipped slate roof with flat leaded top and cupola. Mid Georgian style. Rectangular plan. 2 storeys and attic; 7-window range. 3-window front has rusticated quoins, plat band and flat cornice, with a pediment raised at the corners to form side parapets. A projecting Tuscan portico with front balustrade, antae and pediment, above a rusticated base with a blocked, keyed round arch, with fine curved steps and iron railings rising each side to the portico; first-floor keyed segmental-arched windows with 6/6-pane sashes, a clock in the pediment with a keyed architrave, and a sundial with a gnomon and number XII at the apex of the pediment. The sides have a formerly open ground-floor arcade connected by impost blocks, and first-floor keyed windows as the front. Rear Orchard Street elevation has 2 windows and 2 arches. Domed ridge cupola with concave corners, wide modillion eaves cornice and round-arched windows with rusticated architraves. INTERIOR: the Guildhall includes a first-floor council chamber with a rear platform and doorway with architrave and console pediment, beneath a coat of arms of Queen Victoria, a central right-hand fireplace, masked externally by a blind window, with enriched surround and an overmantel with broken pediment over an eared panel containing pre-1603 Royal Arms. Ceiling divided by moulded bands, central lantern and enriched coved cornice. The ground floor has cast-iron columns along the centre. A very fine example of a Georgian guildhall (manifesting the C18 wealth of Poole), after which the Custom House (qv) was modelled, and elegantly closing off the important view up Market Street. The ground-floor formerly contained an open market. (RCHME: County of Dorset (South East): London: 1970-: 202; Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Newman J: Dorset: London: 1972-: 219). Listing NGR: SZ0095690487

Record last edited

Mar 31 2011 3:47AM