More information : County Hall in Trowbridge was purpose-built in 1938-40 as the offices for Wiltshire County Council, which function it retains today for Wiltshire Council. Established in 1889, Wiltshire County Council settled in the early 1890s at Trowbridge, which was a historic administrative hub for the county. Initially the County Council rented accommodation, then bought and later extended a house in the town centre. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the County Council repeatedly outgrew and extended its accommodation, and acquired additional sites by purchase and lease. In 1929, however, following the Local Government Act (1929), it was determined that new County Council offices should be built, either in Trowbridge or Devizes. Initial support for Trowbridge gave way in 1930 in favour of Devizes but, following a hiatus owing to the national economic crisis, the debate reopened in 1933, and Trowbridge was chosen as the preferred location. The proposed site was the ground of Trowbridge Town Football Club in Bythesea Road, to the south-west of the old town. The land was purchased in 1934 for the sum of £1650, and Philip Dalton Hepworth was appointed as architect. In 1937, the total expenditure for construction presented to the Council was £150 000, and a tender for construction work from Messrs J. Long & Sons of Bath was accepted in 1938. By the late summer of 1940, staff moved into the building, and the first Council meeting was held in the Council Chamber in November 1940.
Philip Dalton Hepworth (1890-1963), was an architect and perspective artist of Scottish birth, who trained at the AA schools, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, and the British School at Rome, where he was Rome Scholar, 1914. He set up a prize-winning private practice, and was known for his domestic work, as well as municipal commissions including Walthamstow Civic Centre (built in 1937-42 and listed at Grade II) and County Hall in Trowbridge. He also designed several cemeteries for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to which he was appointed principal architect in 1944.
In 1972-4, County Hall in Trowbridge was extended by Alec French & Partners, a Bristol-based firm now practising as Alec French Architects, who constructed an additional block to the south, separate from Hepworth¿s building, but linked to it by two ranges.
Purpose-built county council offices in Neo-Georgian style, including a gatehouse lodge (one surviving of the original pair), constructed in 1938-40 to designs by Philip Dalton Hepworth (1890-1963), with an extension of 1972-4 by Alec French & Partners.
The main building is ashlar-faced, with wooden sash windows, wrought-iron balconies to the first floor windows, tiled roof, and a wooden lantern. The lodge is ashlar-faced, with wooden sash windows, and tiled roof. The extension is ashlar-faced, with aluminium-frame windows, and lead roof. The bridge-link is set on concrete stilts, and the ground storey of the rear link is also concrete with ashlar infill.
The main building comprises a long range of thirteen principal bays with two receding wings articulated on the main elevation by projecting bays. A small, central, single-storey porch projects to the front, and a large polygonal chamber projects to the rear. The rooms in the central block of the main building are arranged along either side of a corridor that runs the full length of the main building. The building has five storeys including basement and attic. A central staircase gives access to the principal meeting rooms and council chamber located on the first floor, while a staircase at each end of the main range provides access to the three main storeys of offices. Additional staircases allow access to the basement and attic levels. To the north of the main building is a small lodge, originally one of a pair, the southern example of which was demolished to make way for the 1972-4 extension. The surviving L-shaped-plan lodge is of one storey plus a fenestrated attic level. The extension to County Hall comprises a five-storey block to the south of the main building, set at a distance from it, but linked to it by a three-storey range of offices to the rear and a bridge-link of two elevated storeys above a covered walkway at ground level to the front. Together the extension block and links form a courtyard space between the old and new buildings, which contains a sunken garden comprising a lawn planted with Birch trees.
The ground floor of the main building is articulated by rusticated ashlar blocks below a moulded string course, while the elevations at first- and second-storey height are faced with smooth ashlar. A moulded cornice carries the gutter below the slightly set-back roof. The main entrance has a moulded surround and is reached via the raised porch which is supported by two columns in antis. The porch contains a plaque commemorating the building of County Hall, dated 1937. There are twice as many windows on the ground and second storeys as on the first storey, creating an alternating rhythm across the main elevation. The first-storey windows are surrounded alternately with either simple mouldings or heavy surrounds, pediments, and incised stylistic quoining. Keystones of the principal windows of the wings are decorated with sculptures representing the County¿s assets, including corn, hops and honey. Keystones on the outermost bays of the front elevation combine to give the date `1940¿, and letters incorporated into the first-floor balconies spell out `WILTSHIRE¿. The steeply pitched roof is punctuated with dormer windows and a central wooden lantern carrying a clock and weathervane. The lodge, of domestic proportions, features oversize shallow quoining, a stone hood over the front door, windows with shutters, blind windows, a central chimney stack, and a moulded cornice that carries the gutter. The 1970s extension sits on a splayed stone plinth, is finished in smooth ashlar, and has a mansard roof. The extension¿s southern elevation has eleven bays: seven are fenestrated with windows set flush into the elevation, three have square projecting window bays. The north-east corner of the extension is fenestrated with few windows amid larger expanses of ashlar, while the rest of its elevations, including those giving onto the courtyard, are extensively fenestrated.
The main building contains offices, meeting rooms, members¿ rooms and the council chamber. Some of the original fittings and finishes have survived, particularly in the principal rooms on the first floor. The light fittings are mostly replacements. The main entrance leads into a low-ceilinged hallway, with travertine floor inlaid with black marble in an Art Deco design. The main staircase, of wrought iron in an Art Deco style, is positioned directly opposite the main entrance. The first flight is a broad single staircase which splits into two, ascending from the low ground-floor hall into a double-height, central hall. The staircase well has travertine panelling, and travertine floors inlaid with black marble in an Art Deco design. The upper hall has a top-lit barrel vault supported on pillars of serpentine. The staircase is surrounded by a gallery on three sides; on the fourth is a blank wall with a giant flat-headed, squared niche in a surround of serpentine. The gallery floor is pale linoleum with black trim and the doorways into the adjacent rooms are surrounded with bolection mouldings of serpentine. Not all the rooms were inspected, but rooms on the ground floor, second storey and attic storey are typically of modest decoration. The attic storey is notable for its extensive fenestration to the rear. On the first floor, the rooms are of greater height, creating a `piano nobile¿. Most have glazed panelled wooden doors, with overlights. The principal first-storey meeting rooms are lined floor-to-ceiling in pale wood, with bolection-moulded fireplace surrounds. The ladies members¿ cloakroom has moulded cornice and skirting, and plain, painted panelling above and below the dado. The council members' room is panelled floor-to-ceiling in dark wood, in a Neo-Georgian style, featuring pilasters with carved capitals picked out in white. The council chamber is accessed from the main hall through leather-covered doors with etched-glass panes. The polygonal chamber is top-lit and panelled throughout in oak to four-fifths of the height of the room. Additional peripheral windows below a fretwork cornice open via winding mechanisms contained within the panelling to provide ventilation. The built-in dais is level with the entrance doors, while the built-in banks of blue leather-upholstered councillors' seats are arranged in the centre of the room on descending levels. The two staircases at the junction of the central range and the wings are side-lit (though the south-wing staircase fenestration was adapted to accommodate the 1970s link), and both have a low-relief panel positioned between the first and second storeys depicting a leaping gazelle with nude female rider in Art Deco style. These staircases are wrought iron with a wooden handrail. At the west end of the north wing is a small two-storey staircase extension and a fire-escape. The interior of the lodge was not inspected. The 1970s extension was designed as a standard open-plan office layout. The ground-floor reception area is panelled in wood veneer.
County Hall was designed from 1936, and completed in 1940, with an extension of 1972-4. The Principles of Selection for Listing Buildings published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (2010) state that when considering buildings dating from after 1840, owing to the increased number of buildings erected and the larger numbers that have survived, `progressively greater selection is necessary¿, and that particularly careful selection is required for buildings from after 1945. This is amplified by the Selection Guidance for Law and Government Buildings published by English Heritage (2007) which states that for inter-war examples, `greater survival rates demand rigorous selection¿.
In accordance with the Principles of Selection for Listing Buildings (2010) and English Heritage¿s Selection Guidance for Law and Government Buildings (2007) important considerations include the level and quality of the building's design and architectural detailing; the architectural expression of a social message; the hierarchical emphasis given to principal public areas; and the significance of decorative or symbolic elements. Owing to the ongoing use of public government buildings and their need to meet current office standards, a degree of alteration is to be expected, and surviving features should be carefully considered.
County Hall¿s large scale and grand design make a notable architectural statement within Trowbridge as an expression of the regional presence of central authority. Its employment of classicism, translated in a Neo-Georgian idiom, invokes associations to democracy that are fundamental to local government. No evidence has been found corroborating the applicant¿s assertion that Philip Dalton Hepworth¿s inspiration for County Hall derived from an unspecified building in Amsterdam, though County Hall broadly references 17th and 18th century public architecture, and its small lantern is generically influenced by continental guild halls and town halls which offer a paradigm for the appearance of a civic institution, particularly in the absence of a longstanding indigenous tradition for such buildings in England.
County Hall¿s Neo-Georgian style is, however, rather old-fashioned for its date, being designed from 1936 and built 1938-40. Its main range with projecting end bays and three storeys plus attic is comparable, for example, to the Old Estate Offices, Broadway, Letchworth, which were constructed as part of Letchworth Garden City founded in 1903, though at Letchworth there is also an enduring influence of Arts and Crafts vernacular. Although Ralph Knott's County Hall in London (Grade II*) is on a monumental scale not aspired to for Wiltshire, the design of its flanking wings with rusticated lower storeys and a proliferation of windows is also comparable to County Hall, Trowbridge: but though the north and south wings were designed in 1936-9, their stylistic tenor was set by the central section begun in 1911.
County Hall¿s retardataire nature is particularly tangible considering Hepworth¿s design for Walthamstow Town Hall of 1937-42 (Grade II), and Walthamstow Assembly Hall (1937-42) (Grade II), which were innovative designs strongly influenced by interwar Scandinavian modernism. The traditional style of County Hall may be attributable to the conservative county context, and perhaps to the limitation of available funds. The project does appear to have been subject to financial constraints: it was initially delayed by the economic crisis of the early 1930s, and later, the Finance Committee led the vote for the Trowbridge site over Devizes, as it was the cheaper option of the two.
There are some elements of County Hall¿s detailing that demonstrate Hepworth's creativity, notably the abstracted interpretation of Gibbsian surrounds on the pedimented first-floor windows. In spite of its grand public presence, however, the design of County Hall is not entirely successful: the façade is of such length that it loses strength in the centre: a weakness exacerbated by the small scale of the lantern. The compact design of the gatehouse is much more coherent, no doubt reflective of Hepworth¿s facility for domestic design, which in fact formed the major part of his architectural practice, and upon which his reputation was chiefly based. Though he had the facility to work in a variety of styles including Lutyens-influenced Neo-Georgian, and colonial-influenced vernacular, Hepworth was also known as a modernist, and it is apparent from County Hall that it cannot be seen as one of his most successful or interesting buildings.
As an expression of civic pride, county halls sometimes feature ornamentation relating to the historic associations of the area. In the case of County Hall, Trowbridge, the windows of the main building¿s wings have keystones that are modelled with symbols of the county¿s goods and services: beer, corn, honey, and railways. Likewise, wrought iron first-floor balconies bear letters spelling out `WILTSHIRE¿ across the façade, and a foliated `W¿ is positioned above the door on the north wing. These, however, are superficial rather than integral to the design, and the small number of ornamented keystones hardly amount to a sustained iconographical programme. The 1970s extension, whose main aim was to be recessive in relation to the original building, has no ornamentation at all. Similarly, beyond the use of Bath Stone, there is no particular statement of regional identity in terms of County Hall¿s plan or construction.
The style of County Hall¿s interior is more contemporary for the late 1930s than its exterior, with pared-down panelling and Art Deco motifs, such as the low relief in the stairwells of the side staircases, and the palm-tree motif in the banister of the central staircase. The main stairwell and upper hall have high-quality finishes including travertine panelling, inlaid marble floors, and serpentine door frames. The council chamber itself is coherently conceived to provide an open and well-lit space that is practically and symbolically suited to transparent debate, and most of its original fittings are unaltered. The Council Member¿s Room returns to overt Georgian revivalism and creates a club-like atmosphere through its dark wood panelling and Corinthian pilasters.
However, even where materials and decorative finishes survive intact at County Hall, the application of architectural design to internal features is not systematic, and much of the detailing is standard rather than designed as an integral part of the whole. Although substantial resources were often invested in public buildings, the work at Trowbridge appears to have been restrained in its budget throughout the project. County Hall does not, for example, contain a body of bespoke public art or sculpture. The design of a major public area, the entrance hall, is also underwhelming on account of its low ceiling. The ceiling height is determined by the provision of the main administrative corridor on the first floor but the compressed ground floor space that results is a disappointing entrance that deflates the promise of the façade. The use of both Neo-Georgian and Art Deco decorations and architectural detailing fragments the building's stylistic coherence and the overall impression is that both lack conviction.
County halls are often positioned to facilitate access with the surrounding region, and on sites that are sufficiently large to accommodate facilities providing for a larger administrative area. County Hall, Trowbridge is consequently located between the railway line and the town, on the former grounds of Trowbridge Town Football Club. The availability of this suitable, and suitably priced site, appears to have been the ultimate rationale for the selection of Trowbridge over Devizes as the location of Wiltshire¿s county hall. The construction of the building corresponds to the confirmation of Trowbridge¿s county town status, which is an important feature of its history and local identity. County Hall¿s particular position, however, has resulted in a sense of dislocation from the civic centre, exacerbated by the development of roads in the intermediate area. County Hall is not provided with any advantageous landscaping, and photographs from the 1950s show it starkly isolated.
In some cases, town halls or county halls incorporate a variety of ancillary functions, such as baths, libraries, or law courts, either within one building or as a complex of municipal buildings, which can prompt innovation in design. County Hall, Trowbridge provides for the administrative needs of the county, including for example, the provision of well-lit drawing offices for the county architects in the attic storey, but does not feature any additional functions which substantially inform its plan, nor does it derive any special interest from civic grouping.
The planning of County Hall, Trowbridge has altered since its construction on account of the removal of the southern gatehouse and the erection of the 1970s extension. It has also had a fire escape added at the rear of the north wing, resulting in the loss of windows in that wing's west wall. More significant is the loss of the southern gatehouse which has forfeited the symmetrical arrangement of the main range between gate piers and two ancillary buildings, and has therefore damaged the balance and impact of the overall design. In spite of the unfortunate sacrifice of the gatehouse, however, the extension that now in part occupies its site is a sympathetic addition. Its success derives chiefly from the decision to set a distance between the two buildings by means of the linking ranges and courtyard. The result of this separation is that old County Hall maintains its autonomy and is still legible in its original form. The extension takes its lead in materials and scale from the old County Hall but does not attempt pastiche. The design of the extension does not impinge on the original building and respects it as much as possible. In spite of these positive qualities, however, the extension does not display the architectural quality that is a requirement for special interest in a post-war building.
In summary, County Hall¿s architecture and detailing is standard and rather old-fashioned for its date. The visual weakness of the main range¿s proportions and the unresolved planning of the ground floor mean that it is not one of Hepworth's more compelling designs. Its lack of bespoke fittings, and absence of public art are compounded by its compromised setting and by the loss of the southern gatehouse, with the result that the building is not of sufficient architectural and historic special interest to warrant listing.
Nevertheless, though it does not fulfil the demanding criteria for listing on a national level, on a local level, County Hall, Trowbridge is a good example of a county hall by a prominent architect which makes a positive contribution to the built environment of the town, as confirmed by its identification as an important local landmark (Trowbridge Conservation Area Character Appraisal, 2006). (1) |