For much of the 20th century the Shire Hall in Foregate Street was the meeting place of Worcestershire County Council.[1] Following the amalgamation of Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire County Council to form Hereford and Worcester County Council in 1974, the new county leaders decided to procure a purpose-built county hall: the site they selected had been open land just south of Nunnery Wood.[2]
Construction of the new building began in 1974.[3] It was designed by Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall & Partners[4] in the Brutalist style, built by the local contractor, Espley-Tyas, and was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 4 May 1978.[5] The design for the building, which made extensive use of red brick, took the form of a series of interconnected pavilions.[3] The central pavilion contained the public areas, meeting rooms and Riverside Café while the other pavilions accommodated the council officers, their departments and the council chamber.[3] The landscaping included a lake, together with a waterfall, to the south west of the main building.[6] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber: an exhibition space was subsequently established outside the council chamber at which local artists would display their work.[7]
The County Record Office was installed in a purpose-built annex to the north east of the main building in 1985,[3] and, following the children's television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, live terrapins were released into the lake in the 1990s.[8]
The building became the home of Worcestershire County Council following the local boundary changes in 1998.[9] The former TV-am weather presenter Wincey Willis visited County Hall to launch a scheme, organised by the British Trust Conservation Volunteers, to help unemployed people to return to work in March 2004,[10] and, following the refurbishment of the council chamber, the Duke of Kent also visited County Hall and unveiled a plaque there on 19 February 2009.[11]
Works of art at County Hall include a painting by the rural landscape artist, David Bates, depicting a herd of cows crossing the River Severn,[12] and a sculpture by Sandy O'Connor, depicting a heron eating a fish, in the lake to the south west of the building.[13]
The building was closed in June 2024, after councillors were told that repairs to it would cost £36 million.[14]
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