Bury Town Hall

Bury Town Hall is a municipal building in Knowsley Street, Bury, Greater Manchester, England.

Bury Town Hall
Bury Town Hall
Location	Knowsley Street, Bury
Coordinates	53.5902°N 2.3001°W / 53.5902; -2.3001
Built	1954
Architect	Reginald Edmonds
Architectural style(s)	Neo-Georgian style
Shown in Greater Manchester

History

In the mid-20th century Derby Hall on Market Street had accommodated the local council offices.[1] The new building was designed, following a design competition, by Reginald Edmonds in the Neo-Georgian style in the 1930s.[2] Construction was delayed by the Second World War and it was only officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 22 October 1954.[3][4][5] The design incorporated an assembly hall which became known as the Elizabeth Suite.[6]

The Whitehead Clock Tower, a memorial to Walter Whitehead, a local surgeon, dedicated on June 1914[7] and George Frampton's 'cheering fusilier', a tribute to those soldiers who had died in the Second Boer War, erected in 1920,[8] are both structures which pre-date the current town hall and which stand in Whitehead Garden to the south of the building.[9] The garden itself was a gift from Sidney and Katherine Whitehead of Stormer Hill in Bury to commemorate the lives of seven people who were killed in Chapel Street by a V-1 flying bomb on 24 December 1944 during the Second World War.[10][11]

The town hall was the headquarters of the County Borough of Bury until 1974 when it became the headquarters of the enlarged Metropolitan Borough of Bury.[12] A three-dimensional relief of the enlarged borough's coat of arms, designed by Diana Childs, was installed in the council chamber in the mid-1970s.[13] The Prince of Wales visited the town hall for a lunch meeting with the civic dignitaries on 14 December 1977.[14]

In July 1992 the Queen chose the town hall as her destination on her inaugural journey on the Manchester Metrolink: she had lunch in the building on her arrival.[15][16]

The building had to be closed for weddings and other public events in July 2020 after part of the ceiling on the second floor collapsed.[17]

References

1. "Bury' Met set to re-open after £4.6 million refurbishment". About Manchester. 6 December 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
2. "Reginald Edmonds FRIBA". Old Edwardians Gazette. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
3. Frain, Sean (2013). The Bury Book of Days. The History Press. ISBN 978-0752485829.
4. "Counties And Metropolitan Districts In England". Hansard. 6 July 1972. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
5. "Lancashire Only - Queen Continues Lancashire Tour 1954". British Pathe. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
6. "About the Elizabethan Suite". Bury Council. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
7. Historic England. "Clock Tower, Whitehead or Tower Gardens (1067232)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
8. Historic England. "Lancashire Fusiliers Boer War Memorial (1440258)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
9. Wyke, Terry; Cocks, Harry (2004). Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester. Liverpool University Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0853235675.
10. "The Whitehead Garden". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
11. "V1 flying bomb site, Chapel Street, Tottington near Bury". Air Crash Sites. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
12. "Bury - A brief history". Bury Council. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
13. "Death of town arts supporter". Bury Times. 21 September 2007. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
14. "December 13-14". The Bolton News. 16 December 2002. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
15. "Phase 1 of Metrolink". Transport for Greater Manchester. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
16. "Court Circular". The Independent. 18 July 1992. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
17. "Bury town hall closed after ceiling collapses - four weddings have had to be relocated". Manchester Evening News. 10 July 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2020.