Old Town Hall, Gateshead

Municipal building in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England

Old Town Hall

Old Town Hall, Gateshead

Location| West Street, Gateshead
Coordinates| 54°57′52″N 1°36′14″W﻿ / ﻿54.9644°N 1.6039°W﻿ / 54.9644; -1.6039
Built| 1870
Architect| John Johnstone
Architectural style(s)| Italianate style

Listed Building – Grade II

Official name| Town Hall, ancillary buildings and former Police Station to rear, West Street
Designated| 13 January 1983
Reference no.| 1277845

Shown in Tyne and Wear

The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in West Street, Gateshead, England. It is a Grade II listed building.[1]

## History

[edit]

The first town hall in Gateshead was in Bush Yard.[2] The council subsequently established itself in a building in Greenesfield in 1844.[3] The foundation stone for the current building was laid in 1868: a stand collapsed during the ceremony killing a member of the public.[4] The current building was designed in the Italianate style by John Johnstone who had also designed Newcastle Town Hall.[5][6] Construction work on the Gateshead building was delayed after preparatory work penetrated a coal seam leading to the collapse of nearby properties and the building was eventually completed in 1870.[3] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto West Street; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a round headed doorway on the ground floor, and three stained glass windows on the first floor: there was an ornately carved pediment with a statue depicting justice at roof level.[7]

The old town hall also served as a magistrates' court and a police station.[5] In 1892 an ornamental clock (By Gillett & Johnston), which is Grade II listed and stands in front of the town hall,[8] was presented to Gateshead by the mayor, Walter de Lancey Willson, on the occasion of him being elected for a third time.[5] He was also one of the founders of Walter Willson's, a chain of grocers in the North East and Cumbria.[5] Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, crossed the Tyne Bridge from the north and signed the town hall visitors' book at a small table on the south side of the bridge on 29 October 1954.[9][10][11]

The building remained the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead until the council moved to Gateshead Civic Centre in Regent Street in 1987.[3] The town hall was occupied by the Microelectronics Applications Research Institute ('MARI') who established their head office in the building from 1987 to 2001.[12] It was then briefly used by the management of Sage Gateshead while they waited for their new building at Gateshead Quays to be competed in December 2004.[13]

The Tyneside Cinema occupied the town hall under a short term lease while a restoration and renovation project was undertaken on their premises in Newcastle upon Tyne between November 2006 and May 2008.[14] The main performance hall in the old town hall was refurbished in 2009[15] and the building was managed by Sage Gateshead from January 2013.[16] In 2018 it was acquired by "Dinosauria" which has announced plans to convert it into an "unnatural history museum".[17]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Historic England. "Town Hall, ancillary buildings and former Police Station to rear, West Street (Grade II) (1277845)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
2. ^ "A Short History of Gateshead". Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council. 1998. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
3. ^ a b c "Gateshead". Historic England. pp. 13–18. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
4. ^ "Gateshead Civic Centres". Gateshead History. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
5. ^ a b c d Donaghy, Peter; Laidler, John (2012). Discovering NewcastleGateshead. Sigma Leisure. p. 27\. ISBN 978-1-85058-913-6.
6. ^ "John Johnstone (1818-1884)". Victorian Web. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
7. ^ "There just isn't any Justice in this town!". The Chronicle. 14 March 2007. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
8. ^ Historic England. "Clock Tower in forecourt to west of Town Hall (1277624)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
9. ^ "Jack Lawson Papers: Programme for events at Gateshead Town Hall" (PDF). University of Durham. 29 October 1954. p. 66. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
10. ^ "Programme for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh to Newcastle". Tyne and Wear Archives. 29 October 1954. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
11. ^ "Archive footage of The Queen in the North East (1954)". British Pathé. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
12. ^ "Death of Ponteland businessman and church stalwart". Hexham Courant. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
13. ^ "Sage fans wise up to music". Chronicle Live. 22 September 2003. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
14. ^ "It's a wonderful life for revived cinema with rare history". nebusiness.co.uk. 30 March 2009. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2009.
15. ^ "New chapter in life of town hall". BBC. 19 August 2009. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
16. ^ "Sage move for Gateshead Town Hall". BBC. 18 November 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
17. ^ "Gateshead Old Town Hall to house new offices as well as mythical monster museum". Chronicle Live. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2020.