Kingsbridge_Town_Hall

Kingsbridge Town Hall

Kingsbridge Town Hall

Municipal building in Kingsbridge, Devon, England

Kingsbridge Town Hall is a municipal building in Fore Street, Kingsbridge, Devon, England. The town hall, which is currently used as a cinema, is a Grade II listed building.[1]

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History

The town hall was built and financed by a specially formed company known as the Kingsbridge Private Rooms Company.[2][3] It was designed in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1850.[1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage facing onto Fore Street; the building was arcaded on the ground floor, so that butter and poultry could be sold, with an assembly room on the first floor.[2] There were three round headed openings on the ground floor, a canted oriel window on the first floor and an obtuse angled pediment at roof level.[1] Internally, as well as the public rooms, the facilities included offices for the local constabulary and a lock-up for petty criminals.[2]

By the 1860s the town hall was being used as a drill hall by the 26th (Kingsbridge) Devonshire Rifle Volunteer Corps; it was also being used as a courthouse for petty session and county court hearings[2] and science classes were being held in the building.[4] A clock turret in the shape of a cube with three circular faces and a finial was placed on the roof of the building in 1875.[1] Local tradition has it that the clock was not given a western face so that the labourers in the Kingsbridge Union Workhouse would not be able to count the minutes until the end of their shift; a more likely explanation is simply that the western side of the clock was used for maintenance access.[5]

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the status of Kingsbridge as a market town, the area became an urban district in 1894.[6] The council acquired the building from the original shareholders allowing the company to be wound up in the early 20th century.[7] Soldiers from the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), based at Saltash in Cornwall, were entertained to a concert in the town hall in December 1914 during the First World War.[8]

The town hall ceased to be the meeting place of the local council when it moved to Quay House in the 1950s.[9] The building was converted for use as a theatre in 1980[10] and then fitted out for use as a cinema in 1997:[11] it then operated as a community cinema under the Reel Cinema brand from May 2000, and after being acquired by Merlin Entertainments, was re-branded as the Kings Cinema in July 2015.[12]

References

  1. [1]
    Historic England. "Town Hall (1107527)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  2. [2]
    "Devon Historic Coastal and Market Towns Survey: Kingsbridge" (PDF). Cornwall Council. 2013. p. 38. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  3. [3]
    Public Enterprise, Patent Law and National Progress. Vol. 12. The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal. 1849. p. 175.
  4. [4]
    Fifteenth Report of the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education. George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode. 1868. p. 76.
  5. [5]
    "Heartbreaking 'local legend' behind a Devon town's faceless clock". Devon Live. 28 June 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  6. [6]
    "Kingsbridge UD". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  7. [7]
    "No. 27520". The London Gazette. 30 January 1903. p. 628.
  8. [8]
    Rea, Tony (2016). South Devon in the Great War. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1473834255.
  9. [9]
    "Quay House". Art UK. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  10. [10]
    "Kingsbridge Town Trail" (PDF). Kingsbridge Estuary. p. 4. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  11. [11]
    "Kings Cinema". Cinema Treasures. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
  12. [12]
    "The Reel deal sees cinema change hands". Kingsbridge and Salcombe Gazette. 3 July 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
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