Godalming Borough Hall

The town of Godalming was incorporated as a borough by a charter issued in 1575 from Elizabeth I.^[1] The first municipal building in Godalming was an 18th-century market hall in the High Street which was used to accommodate French prisoners following the capture of Belle Île in June 1761.^[2] It was replaced by the current market hall, The Pepperpot, which was designed by John Perry in the neoclassical style, built by public subscription and completed in 1814.^[3][4] The borough was reformed with elected officials in accordance with the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.^[5]

After civic leaders decided that the assembly room in the Pepperpot was inadequate for public meetings, a public hall was erected in Bridge Street: it was designed by Henry Peak, built using brown rubble masonry and completed in 1861.^[6][7][8]

In May 1907 tenders were invited from contractors to extend the public hall in Bridge Street to the west to create new municipal buildings for the borough.^[9] The extension was built in red brick with stone dressings and the work was completed in 1908.^[4] The design of the enlarged structure involved an asymmetrical main frontage with ten bays facing onto Bridge Street; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured arcading on the ground floor, three sash windows with stone surrounds on the first floor and a pediment above with an oculus in the tympanum. The left hand section featured, in the central bay, a doorway with a canopy on the ground floor and a panel containing the borough coat of arms on the first floor. The right hand section featured, in the end bay which slightly projected forward, a round headed doorway on the ground floor and a tri-part sash window on the first floor with a pediment above.^[10]

The building continued to serve as the meeting place of Godalming Borough Council for much of the 20th century,^[11] but ceased to be the local seat of government when Waverley Borough Council was formed with its headquarters in Guildford in 1974.^[12][13] Waverley Council moved to new council offices in The Burys just behind the borough hall in 1980.^[8][14] The borough hall subsequently served as the headquarters of Godalming Town Council,^[15] until 2021 when the council moved its offices to a converted shop at 107–109 High Street and its meetings to the Waverley council chamber at The Burys.^[16][17]

Works of art in the borough hall include a portrait by Godfrey Kneller of the locally-born sailor, Admiral Sir John Balchen,^[18] who became governor of the Greenwich Naval Hospital in March 1743.^[19]

Media related to Godalming Borough Hall at Wikimedia Commons