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Looe Guildhall
Looe Guildhall
	Looe Guildhall
Location	Fore Street, Looe, Cornwall, England
Coordinates	50°21′17″N 4°27′16″W / 50.3546°N 4.4544°W
Built	1877
Architect	John Ford Gould
Architectural style(s)	Gothic Revival style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Guildhall
Designated	17 September 1973
Reference no.	1280863
	Shown in Cornwall

Looe Guildhall is a municipal building in Fore Street in Looe, Cornwall, England. The structure, which is currently used as a community events venue, is a Grade II listed building.^[1]

History

The building was commissioned to replace the Old Guildhall in High Market Street which dated from around 1450.^[2] The new building was designed by John Ford Gould of Barnstaple in the Gothic Revival style, built by Samuel Honey of West Looe in rubble masonry with ashlar stone dressings and was officially opened on 13 September 1877.^[3]

The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing onto Fore Street. The left-hand bay was formed by a four-stage clock tower which was 90 feet (27 m) high. The first stage featured a deeply recessed arched doorway, with a shield bearing the town's coat of arms in the tympanum; the second stage contained a pair of mullioned windows, the third stage featured three small lancet windows (one set above the other two) and the fourth stage was originally blind. The tower was surmounted by a machicolated cornice, a pyramid-shaped roof and a weather vane. The right-hand section featured two arched openings on the ground floor and three mullioned windows on the first floor with a gable above. Internally, the principal rooms were a drill hall on the ground floor, which was used by No. 2 Battery, the 1st Cornwall (Duke of Cornwall's) Artillery Volunteers for training, and the great hall on the first floor, which was also used as a courtroom. Both these rooms were 45 feet (14 m) long and 20 feet (6.1 m) wide.^[3] The great hall contained a series of stained glass windows made by Fouracre and Watson of Stonehouse, Plymouth.^[4] A local directory described it as "the handsomest public room in the county".^[5] A clock was installed in the fourth stage of the tower in 1880.^[1]

After East Looe Borough Council, which had met in the guildhall, was abolished under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act 1883,^[6] the building was transferred to a specially formed entity, the East Looe Town Trust, in 1890.^[7] The building became the meeting place of Looe Urban District Council, which had jurisdiction over the communities on both sides of the River Looe, when it was formed in 1898. The new council also took over the management of the East Looe Town Trust.^[8]

The guildhall continued to serve as the headquarters of the urban district council for much of the 20th century,^[9] but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged Caradon District Council was formed in 1974.^[10]^[11] However, the building continued to operate as a community events venue and also became an approved location for weddings and civil partnership ceremonies.^[12] Work to restore the stained glass windows in the great hall was undertaken in spring 2018,^[13] and the building was used as a filming location for the BBC series, Beyond Paradise, which was first broadcast in February 2023.^[14]

Works of art in the guildhall include a painting by John Robertson Reid depicting the arrest of a smuggler in West Looe,^[15] and a painting by David Wilkie Wynfield depicting Oliver Cromwell's First Appearance in Parliament.^[16]

References

^ ^a ^b Historic England. "Guildhall (1280863)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
^ "The Old Guildhall Museum, Looe". Welcome to Looe. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
^ ^a ^b The New Guildhall at Looe, Cornwall. The Builder. 29 September 1877. p. 989.
^ "Looe Guildhall". Cornish Stained Glass. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
^ J. G. Harrod & Co.'s Royal County Directory of Devonshire and Cornwall. 1878. p. 859.
^ Municipal Corporations Act 1883 (46 & 46 Vict. Ch. 18) (PDF). 1883. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
^ "History of the Trust". East Looe Town Trust. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
^ Keast, John (1987). A History of East and West Looe. Phillimore. p. 79. ISBN 978-0850336153. in 1898 the Looe Urban District Council came into being, comprising East and West Looe and part of the parish of Talland, and taking over management of the East Looe Town Trust
^ "No. 45702". The London Gazette. 15 June 1972. p. 7184.
^ Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN 0-10-547072-4.
^ "Looe UD". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
^ "Weddings Venue in Looe". East Looe Town Trust. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
^ "Work on landmark building to start". Cornish Times. 6 February 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
^ "Beyond Paradise". Visit Looe. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
^ Reid, John Robertson. "The Arrest of the Smuggler in West Looe, 1820". Art UK. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
^ Wynfield, David Wilkie. "Cromwell's First Appearance in Parliament". Art UK. Retrieved 9 August 2023.