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Town Hall. 1890-97. Designed by Edward W. Mountford (1855-1908). Pinstone Street, Central Sheffield.
Mountford, who produced 500 working drawings for the building, won the competition judged by Alfred Waterhouse for what became what Harman and Minnis call the city's “grandest civic building.” The authors of the Pevsner architectural guide for Sheffield praise the Town Hall's “lively interpretation of Northern Renaissance architecture.”
Mullioned and transomed windows, with small-paned casements, and a profusion of dormers, gables, pinnacles, turrets and chimneys, form a picturesque composition which is enhanced by the tall asymmetrically placed angle tower at the junction of Pinstone and Surrey Streets. The exterior is faced in Derbyshire sandstone from Stoke Hall quarry, the steeply pitched roofs are covered in green Westmoreland slates in diminishing courses and turrets roofed in copper. [63]
Left: The Town Hall's “picturesque composition . . . is enhanced by the tall asymmetrically placed angle tower at the junction of Pinstone and Surrey Streets” (63). Right: A view of the copper-roofed tower down Surrey Street.
Left: Entrance to lady's toilets with elaborate carving and date devised by Mountford and F. W. Pomeroy. Middle: Wrought-iron gates at the main entrance designed by Mountford and executed by J.W. Singer and Sons of Frome. Right: “The corner of the Norfolk Street return is marked by an octagonal tower with a turret and lantern” (63).
Left: elaborate carving designed by Mountford and F. W. Pomeroy. Middle: View from Pinstone Street. Right: Elaborate chimney (detail of the part of the building that appears at right).
Related Material: sculpture by Pomeroy on Sheffield's Town Hall
- Allegorical figure holding the tools of the metal-working trades
- War
- Peace
- Queen Victoria
- Thor and Vulcan supporting the arms of the city of Sheffield
- Steam and Electricity
- The Arts and Industries of Sheffield (I)
- The Arts and Industries of Sheffield (II)
- Justice
References
Sheffield. Harman, Ruth, and John Minnis. Pevsner Architectural Guides. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2004.
Last modified 23 November 2011