Beeston Town Hall

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the lace and hosiery industries, the area became an urban district in 1894.^[1] The early meetings of the new council were held at the Board Schools until the council commissioned its own offices at a site on Church Street in 1897.^[2] In the mid-1930s, the council decided that the old council offices were inadequate: the site they selected for the new town hall was open land on the west side of Foster Avenue.^[3] The old council officers were demolished during a wave of the redevelopment in the late 1960s and early 1970s.^[4]

The new town hall was designed by Evans, Clark and Woollatt in the Neo-Georgian style, built by Hofton and Son in red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £18,500 and was officially opened on 24 March 1938.^[5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto Foster Avenue; the central bay featured a double-panelled doorway flanked by brick pilasters and brackets supporting a stone balcony with an ogive-shaped window on the first floor. The middle bays in the outer sections featured sash windows on the ground floor and terracotta carvings of beehives, a play on the name of the town, on the first floor, while the other bays in the outer sections were fenestrated by sash windows. At roof level, there was a frieze and a cornice, broken by a central pediment. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber.^[6]

The town hall continued to serve as the meeting place of Beeston Urban District Council until 1935, of the enlarged Beeston and Stapleford Urban District from 1935 to 1974^[7] and of the further enlarged Broxtowe Borough Council from 1974.^[8] In 1980, the town hall was the venue for the public inquiry into the proposed demolition of the Bennerley Viaduct which was ultimately saved.^[9]

The council established new council offices on the opposite side of Foster Avenue and moved its headquarters there in the early 1990s.^[10] In 2005, the first annual Beeston Carnival took place: the focal point of the event was the parade, led by Beeston Pipe Band, from the town hall to Broadgate Park.^[11][12] The council decided that the town hall was surplus to requirements in 2018 and, despite opposition from local community groups, sold the building to the Redeemer Church for £425,000 in January 2020.^[13][14]