In the first half of the 19th century, petty session hearings were held in a detached building in the grounds of the George Inn in Market Street.[3][4] After finding this arrangement unsatisfactory, a group of local business leaders decided to form a company to commission a purpose-built complex for holding public meetings, court hearings and markets.[5] The new complex was designed by Henry Isaac Stevens in the Italianate style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1857.[1][6][7]
The design of the town hall, which was at the front of the complex, involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Market Street. The ground floor, which was rusticated, featured an elliptical opening with a keystone, which provided access to the market hall and was flanked by two sash windows. The first floor was fenestrated by sash windows with brackets supporting cornices; these windows were flanked by pilasters supporting an entablature, a modillioned cornice and a balustrade.[1] Internally, the principal room was the assembly room on the first floor, which became the local venue for both petty session hearings and county court hearings.[8] In October 1859, it was also consecrated as the home of the local freemasons' lodge in the presence of the Provincial Grand Master, Earl Howe.[9] The building was described in Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer as a "noble edifice".[10] The other main part of the complex, the market hall, extended back for 14 bays behind the town hall.[2]
Following a significant increase in population, largely associated with the leather working industry, the area became an urban district with the town hall as its headquarters in 1894.[11] The town hall then continued to serve as the meeting place of the urban district council[12] and as a local venue for civic events[13] for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged North West Leicestershire District Council was formed in 1974.[14] The town hall was subsequently converted for retail use with the first floor room later becoming the showroom of a picture framing business.[15]
.jpg)
