Maidenhead Town Hall is a municipal building in St Ives Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England.
| Maidenhead Town Hall | |
|---|---|
 Maidenhead Town Hall | |
| Location | St Ives Road, Maidenhead |
| Coordinates | 51°31′19″N 0°43′07″W / 51.5219°N 0.7187°W |
| Built | 1962 |
| Architect | North & Partners and Sir Hubert Worthington |
| Architectural style(s) | Neo-Georgian style |
  Shown in Berkshire | |
History edit
A medieval guildhall was constructed in the High Street around 1430 and replaced by a larger guildhall, designed by Theodosius Keene in the Italianate style, in 1777.[1][2] In the late 1950s, Maidenhead Borough Council decided to demolish the aging 18th guildhall and replace it with a modern facility.[3]
The site selected for the new building had previously been occupied by a 16th century mansion known as St Ives Place.[4] King Henry VIII granted St Ives Place to Anne of Cleves for life as part of his divorce settlement with her in 1541.[5] In the 18th century, it had become the home of Peniston Powney, the MP for Berkshire[6] and by the early 1920s it was owned by another politician, Lord Desborough.[5]
The new building, which was designed by North & Partners and Sir Hubert Worthington in the Neo-Georgian style, was officially opened by the Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, in June 1962.[7][8] The Desborough Suite, which was created to offer conferencing and theatre facilities, was named in honour of the former owner of St Ives Place.[9]
The building was used as a location for several of the "Carry On" series of films starting with Carry On Doctor in 1967.[10] It was the meeting place of Maidenhead Borough Council until 1974 when it became the headquarters of the enlarged Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council.[11] The town hall was extensively refurbished, to a design by McBains Cooper, at a cost of £1.6 million, in 2014,[12] and proposals for the refurbishment of the Desborough Suite, a cost of £2 million, were approved in 2019.[13]
References edit
- ^ Elias Kupfermann; Carol Dixon-Smith (5 November 2014). Maidenhead Through Time. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-4456-3853-9.
- ^ Charles Kerry (1861). The History and Antiquities of the Hundred of Bray, in the County of Berks. Published by the author. p. 143.
- ^ "A life-changing year in the life if the mayor". Slough & South Bucks Express. 27 May 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ "Postcard, Maidenhead Free Library". Windsor Museum. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ a b Ditchfield, P H; Page, William (1923). "'Bray with the borough of Maidenhead: Introduction, borough and manors', in A History of the County of Berkshire". London: British History Online. pp. 93–107. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ "Powney, Peniston (1699-1757), of Ives Place, Maidenhead, Berkshire". History of Parliament. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus (2010). Berkshire. Yale University Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0300126624.
- ^ "Do you have a royal souvenir for the diamond jubilee exhibition?". Slough & South Bucks Express. 2 February 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ "Combined charities fair in Maidenhead this week". Maidenhead Advertiser. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ "Maidenhead Town Hall becomes a hospital for Carry on Doctor in 1967". Get Reading. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ "Welcome". Windsor and Maidenhead Borough Council. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ "Maidenhead Town Hall". J. Coffey. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
- ^ "Desborough Theatre to get £2 million refurbishment". Maidenhead Advertiser. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2020.