Wallasey Town Hall

Wallasey Town Hall. Brighton Street. Town Hall. 1914-20 by Briggs, Wolstenholme & Thornely. Free Neo-Grecian in a Beaux Arts tradition. Limestone ashlar, rusticated to ground floor; Welsh slate roofs. 3 storeys. Plan: Rectangular 15 x 19 bay block; entrance range (towards Brighton Street) with Civic Hall over; Imperial stair hall at centre with 1st floor Council Chamber overlooking the river. Offices to all floors arranged around small courtyards (for light access only). Exterior: Front (towards Brighton Street): 7 large round-headed windows divided by tall pilasters form a piano nobile (lighting the Civic Hall), with square-headed windows below and a central porch with panelled doors and cast-iron railings to balcony. Pedimented shallow wings with deep central recesses flanked by giant columns in antis. Parapet and 1st floor sill band returns to all sides. Round-headed windows to ground floor, square-headed above, to all other eleva- tions. Side elevations (5:11:3) more simply treated with shallow end wings, those to the Brighton Street end with pediments and giant order of pilasters. Riverside elevation with blank end bays, the 5 central bays projecting with tall round-headed windows and attached columns marking Council Chamber, the windows with elaborate carved keyblocks. Centrally placed tower set back behind river- side elevation: 3 storeys, the upper stages combined and open to form a lantern with large round-headed arches and connecting open screens with columns and entablatures. Grade II listed building. List entry Number: 1258467. DSC_0985p1