Sandown Town Hall

Following their appointment in 1866,^[2] the local board of health decided to commission a new civic building for the town: the site they selected was open land on the east side of Grafton Street.^[3] The new building was designed by the local architect, Thomas Dowell, in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £1,278 and was completed in 1869.^[4][5]

The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto Grafton Street; the right hand section of three bays featured a doorway with a wrought-iron canopy flanked by sash windows with segmental pediments.^[1] The first floor was also fenestrated by sash windows, the central window bearing a triangular pediment and the outer windows bearing segmental pediments. The windows were flanked by full-height Doric order columns supporting an entablature and a pediment with the Prince of Wales's feathers and the inscription "Town Hall 1869" in the tympanum.^[1] The left hand section of two bays featured round headed windows on the ground floor and segmental windows on the first floor flanked by full-height pilasters supporting an open pediment with an oculus in the tympanum.^[1] The central section featured a doorway with a fanlight, a keystone and a pediment on the ground floor and two square headed windows on the first floor; the central section was surmounted by a dentiled cornice and a parapet.^[1] Internally, the principal room was the main hall with capacity for 520 people.^[2]

A fire station was completed on an adjacent site to the south of the town hall in 1879.^[6] Following significant growth in the population, largely associated with the fishing industry, the area became an urban district with the town hall as its headquarters in 1894.^[7] The building was also used as an events venue by Sandown Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society which was founded just before the First World War.^[8] The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of Sandown Urban District Council and, from 1933, of the Sandown-Shanklin Urban District Council^[9] but ceased to be the local seat of government when the council relocated to Shanklin Town Hall in the 1940s.^[10] However, Sandown Town Hall continued to be used as an events venue and in the mid-1960s performers included the soul band, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds.^[11]

Following implementation of the Local Government Act 1972, ownership of the building passed to South Wight District Council in 1974.^[12] It was then acquired by Isle of Wight County Council in 1982,^[13] before being transferred to the new unitary authority, Isle of Wight Council in 1995.^[14] The building was adapted for occupation as an indoor bowls centre for senior citizens and later as a youth centre and the latter use continued until the building was vacated in June 2017.^[15]

Although Sandown Town Council considered using the town hall as its principal meeting place,^[16] the town council chose instead to redevelop the Broadway Centre in 2018.^[17] A local art curator, Simon Avery, suggested, in July 2020, that the town hall may contain murals by the Victorian artist, Henry Tooth.^[18] However, Isle of Wight Council decided, in March 2021, to grant planning permission to convert the building for residential use^[19] and then, in September 2021, decided to sell the building to a developer.^[20]