Tewkesbury Town Hall

Tewkesbury's first town hall stood further south, on the west side of the High Street at the corner with Church Street. A medieval structure rebuilt in 1586, it was arcaded at ground level so markets could be held beneath, with an assembly room on the first floor. Useful, but badly placed: it impeded the traffic. In the 1780s the local member of parliament, Sir William Codrington, offered to pay for a replacement further north on the same side of the street.

The new building was neoclassical, built in ashlar stone, and completed just in time for a visit from King George III and Queen Charlotte in July 1788. Originally it was a two-storey block set well back from the High Street with a corn exchange in front. The area became a municipal borough in 1835 with the town hall as its headquarters; three basement cells for the local police force followed in 1839, and a market hall was added in front of the original structure at around the same time. The completed design had a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing the High Street, with a round-headed doorway and fanlight, flanking round-headed sash windows, Doric columns and pilasters, and a pediment carrying a clock and two supporting stone statues. Medland and Son altered the building again in 1891.

In 1962 an Anglo-American garden of remembrance and riverside walk was established behind the complex, commemorating service personnel of both nations who died in the Second World War. The Town Hall served Tewkesbury Municipal Borough Council for much of the twentieth century, until the enlarged Tewkesbury Borough Council was formed with new offices on Gloucester Road in 1974. It is now the meeting place of Tewkesbury Town Council, and a Grade II* listed building. Inside hang a portrait of Sir William Codrington by Nathaniel Dance-Holland and one of the local MP James Martin by George Romney.

The Town Hall stands on the High Street in the centre of Tewkesbury and is the meeting place of Tewkesbury Town Council — so public access depends on council business, events and bookings rather than fixed visitor opening hours. Check ahead before making a special journey. Even from the pavement, the frontage repays a few minutes: the portico, the clock and its two supporting stone statues in the tympanum, and the bell turret above.

For those who want to see the building after dark, organised public ghost hunts are held at the venue; book directly with the organisers. Afterwards — or beforehand, in daylight — walk round to the Anglo-American garden of remembrance and riverside walk behind the complex, laid out in 1962 for the service personnel of both nations who died in the Second World War.