Kingsbridge Town Hall | |
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![]() Kingsbridge Town Hall | |
Location | Fore Street, Kingsbridge |
Coordinates | 50°17′08″N 3°46′41″W / 50.2856°N 3.7781°W |
Built | 1850 |
Architectural style(s) | Neoclassical style |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Official name | Town Hall |
Designated | 31 October 1972 |
Reference no. | 1107527 |
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]
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]