County Hall, Abingdon, Oxfordshire (Known earlier as the Town Hall or Market Hall) 17th century |
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Notes in italics from Berkshire by Nikolaus Pevsner (1966) Yale University Press, New Haven and London. |
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| TOWN HALL, Market Square. Built in 1678-82. The 'undertaker' of the work was Christopher Kempster of Burford, one of Wren's City masons. It is not known whether he also designed it, or who else did. Of the free-standing town halls of England with open ground floor this is the grandest - grander decidedly than Windsor. It is also remarkably high and monumental for its two storeys. Celia Fiennes called it the finest town hall in England. | ||||
| Click photos below to enlarge | ||||
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| Brown stone, four by two bays. Giant pilasters on very high plinths used consistently. Open arches below, the windows above of three lights arched with a transom and the mullions forming a concentric arch above the transom - Wren's pattern at Trinity Library Cambridge. | ||||
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| Hipped roof, top balustrade and cupola, as was used for country houses of c.1635-75. At the back a staircase tower ending in bulbous pinnacles. ... | ||||
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| The ground floor was of course used
as a market, the upper room as a courtroom. ... The third picture shows St Nicholas church and the Abbey Gateway beyond the town hall. |
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| On the top of the County Hall, with the view of Market Place below. | ||||
| Other views from the roof: | ||||
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| Bridge Street with the various
Guildhall buildings on the left. The old Gaol House of 1811 consisting of three wings around a hexagonal tower, and Didcot power station in the distance. East St Helen Street. High Street. |
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More
about the County Hall building at the town council website Map More Buildings of Abingdon |
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