Fenton Town Hall is a former municipal building located in Albert Square and is now occupied by local businesses, a café and an art gallery.
The building designed by Robert Scrivener & Son, was commissioned by a local pottery proprietor, William Meath Baker, who also laid out the town centre.
It was built in the Gothic Revival style, in red brick with stone dressings, on a large site that he owned.
The foundation stone was laid by William Meath Baker on 5th July 1888, and was officially opened in December 1889.
"The design of the building involved a near-symmetrical main frontage with ten bays facing onto Albert Square; the bays were all flanked by full-height pilasters, supporting a cornice, a parapet and finials. The central section of six bays was fenestrated with tripartite mullioned and transomed windows on the ground floor and tall arched windows with tracery on the first floor. The central two windows on the first floor, which were taller than the others, were surmounted by a gable containing a tripartite window and, above that, a coat of arms. The side wings were each of two bays, not as tall as the central section, but also gabled. The outer bay in the left-hand side wing featured an arched four-part mullioned and transomed window with tracery on the ground floor and an oriel window with by a cone-shaped roof on the first floor. The outer bay in the right-hand side wing featured a doorway with an architrave and a keystone on the ground floor and an oriel window with a cone-shaped roof on the first floor. There was originally a central belfry with a spire on the roof.
Internally, the principal room was the ballroom which featured a fine vaulted ceiling.
The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, commented favourably on the "little originalities which help to relieve the portliness of the building". SOURCE: (
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On completion the building was leased to the local board of health.
In 1894 the area became an urban district, after a large growth in population, mainly associated with the pottery industry. The new urban district council purchased the building from Baker for use as its headquarters in 1897.
When the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent was formed in March 1910, the town hall ceased to be the local seat of government.
In 1914 a police station, also designed by Robert Scrivener & Son, was erected between the town hall and the public library.
A memorial, in the form of a plaque created from Minton tiles and listing the names of 498 local service personnel, was installed inside the building. It was unveiled on 11th November 1922, by Colonel John Ward C.B., C.M.G., the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent, who had commanded the 25th Middlesex Regiment during the war.
During the Second World War, as part of the local fund-raising effort for Wings for Victory Week in April 1943, a Spitfire was parked outside the town hall.
The town hall building became a court in 1965, when all the city’s magistrates’ courts were brought under one roof at Fenton, and the police station was converted for use as the magistrates' clerks' office.
The building continued to serve as a venue for magistrates' court hearings until December 2012 when the courts service was relocated to Newcastle-under-Lyme.
In 2013, the Victorian Society listed the building as the fifth most endangered building in England and Wales.
In November 2014, protestors from a local action group, who had occupied the building in an attempt to frustrate Ministry of Justice's proposals to sell the building, were served with an eviction order.
In February 2015, the building was reacquired by Baker & Co, the pottery business founded by William Baker, to ensure it continues to serve the community into the 21st century.
The company lets parts of the building to local businesses, a café and an art gallery.
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In 2021 a programme of works to restore the ballroom and to reveal its original vaulted ceiling was carried out with financial support from Arts Council England. (
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