Town Halls of Stoke-on-Trent | Buildings of Stoke-on-Trent

 

Buildings of Stoke-on-Trent

[ Web Site Index ]

Town Halls of Stoke-on-Trent

One city, six towns, thirteen town halls
 

13 Town Halls!

The six towns of the Potteries have, between them, had a total of thirteen Town Halls. 
Burslem has had three (two of them still standing), Hanley had three; Fenton one and the other towns two apiece.
There are seven Town Halls still in existence - one in each of the six towns and two in Burslem.
Longton's Town Hall only survived demolition by the City authorities after a campaign by local residents.

 

 
Town Location of Town Hall Build date Architect  
Tunstall Tower Square (then Market Square) demolished 1892 more>>
Tunstall East end of Tower Square 1883-5 A. R. Wood in existence more>>
Burslem Market Square c.1761 demolished c.1852 more>>
Burslem Market Square 1852-57 G. T. Robinson in existence more>>
Burslem Wedgwood Street 1911  Russell & Cooper in existence more>>
Hanley Town Road early 1800's   demolished more>>
Hanley Fountain Square 1845 demolished more>>
Hanley Albion Street 1869 Robert Scrivener in existence more>>
Stoke Market Pl., Market Street (now Hide Street) c.1794 demolished more>>
Stoke Glebe Street 1834-c.1850 Henry Ward in existence more>>
Fenton Albert Square 1888-9 R. Scrivener & Son in existence more>>
Longton Market Street and Commerce Street 1844  demolished more>>
Longton Times Square 1863  Burrill in existence more>>

 

click on the photos for more details...

Tunstall's first
Tunstall's first
Tunstall's second
Tunstall's second
Burslem's first
Burslem's first
Burslem's second
Burslem's second

 

Burslem's third
Burslem's third

Hanley's first
Hanley's second
Hanley's second
Hanley's third
Hanley's third

 


Stoke's first
Stoke's first
Stoke's second
Stoke's second

Fenton's
Fenton's

Longton's first
Longton's first

 

Longton's second
Longton's second
     

  City civic centres.....
Unity House, Hanley
Unity House, Hanley
Civic Centre, Stoke
Civic Centre, Stoke

"The first hint of this unique local character is that, on first visiting the place, the stranger is immediately confused by his inability to find a centre that seems to do justice to what he knows to be a large industrial town, dignified by the title ‘city’ and possessing a Lord Mayor. Such august personages are normally enshrined in a town hall—at least for a year—and there is no shortage of town halls in which to enshrine them. 

There is a town hall every couple of miles, and each would do justice to a small town like Aylesbury. None of them is outstanding in the usual sense, but each has its good points and is very like the last in character if not in style. Each embodies something of the sturdiness of the Potteries, and has its surrounding shopping area scattered about it in a homely muddle. Each is now, regrettably, acquiring a sterile and desperate collection of concrete cornflake boxes and toy-town sets of stairs and tunnels, cringing under the title ‘precinct’, a name more suited to the macabre activities of New World law enforcement agencies than the shopping needs of the quiet, friendly people of the Six Towns.

However, the existence of the Town Halls helps to explain why local folks refer to the area as “the Potteries”—very much in the plural—and not as “Stoke-on-Trent”. And why, when you ask the inevitable Midlands question “Where do you come from?” they answer “Burslem” or “Hanley” or “Stoke” or “Longton” or “Tunstall” or even, surprisingly, “Fenton”. "

'Portrait of the Potteries' Bill Morland

 

 

Acknowledgements: 
Drawings and details for Burslem 1, Hanley 1, Stoke 1: Andrew Dobraszczyc
Postcards: John Booth
Photo
Fenton & war memorial Peter Bennett


questions/comments/contributions? email: Steve Birks

7 Jan 2007