page_title: Northampton
section_title: Notable buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Northampton / Notable buildings
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Express Lift Tower in en:Northampton. Photo by G-Man * Aug 2006
context_page_description: Northampton is a large market town and the county town of Northamptonshire in the East Midlands of England. It lies on the River Nene, 60 miles north-west of London and 50 miles south-east of Birmingham. One of the largest towns in England, it had a population of 212,100 at the 2011 census.
  Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates to the Bronze Age, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. In the Middle Ages, the town rose to national significance with the establishment of Northampton Castle, an occasional royal residence which regularly hosted the Parliament of England. Medieval Northampton had many churches, monasteries and the University of Northampton, all enclosed by the town walls. It was granted a town charter by Richard I in 1189 and a mayor was appointed by King John in 1215. The town was also the site of two medieval battles, in 1264 and 1460.
  Northampton supported the Parliamentary Roundheads in the English Civil War, and Charles II ordered the destruction of the town walls and most of the castle. The Great Fire of Northampton in 1675 destroyed much of the town. It was soon rebuilt and grew rapidly with the industrial development of the 18th century.
context_section_description: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is one of the largest and best-preserved round churches in England. It was built in 1100 on the orders of the first Earl of Northampton, Simon de Senlis and based on a plan of the original Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
  Simon de Senlis also built Northampton Castle c. 1084, which was for many years one of the country's most important castles. It was a royal residence, held The Parliament of England many times, and was the site of royal tournaments and feasts. Thomas Becket was imprisoned there until he escaped. The castle suffered many fates and was eventually demolished to make way for the railway station in 1879. A postern, dismantled from its original position and rebuilt into a wall by the station, and a part of the keep mound are all that remains.
  The current All Saints' Church was built on the site of a great Norman church, All Hallows, which was almost completely destroyed by the Great Fire of Northampton in 1675. All that remained was the medieval tower and the fine vaulted crypt, but by 1680 All Saints' had been rebuilt, with the help of donations from all over England, including 1,000 tons of timber from King Charles II, whose statue can be seen above the portico. Famously, the poet John Clare liked to sit beneath the portico of the church. It is home to a choral foundation.
  Other notable church buildings include Northampton Cathedral, the mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Northampton and seat of the Bishop of Northampton; St Peter's (mostly built in Norman times);  St Giles' Church; St Matthew's in Phippsville, which was built between 1891–4, has a Henry Moore sculpture of the Madonna. St Edmund's Church (built in 1850) closed in 1978 and was demolished in 1980 (its bells are now in Saint Paul's Cathedral, Wellington).
  Just south of the town centre Delapré Abbey, a former Cluniac nunnery, the County Records Office and site of the second Battle of Northampton, which was founded by Simon II de Senlis, the son of first Earl of Northampton, in 1145. At the edge of the Abbey, one of the three standing Eleanor crosses still remains, in memory of Eleanor of Castile, whose body rested here on its way to London. The original top of the monument has been knocked off and replaced several times from as early as 1460.
  St Andrew's Hospital, which opened 1838, and its new building William Wake House, is one of the largest neo-classical structures in England. Northampton & County Club, which was established in 1873, was also the old county hospital before becoming a private members' club; the cellars are medieval. Northampton Guildhall, which is Grade II* listed, was constructed mostly in the 1860s in Victorian Gothic architecture designed by Edward William Godwin, and extended in 1889–92 and in the 1990s. The Clare Street drill hall was completed in 1859.
  78 Derngate is a Grade II* listed Georgian Town House remodelled by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke in 1916–17. It contains notable Mackintosh interiors (which have been restored) and is his only major domestic commission outside Scotland. It is open to the public. One of these Derngate buildings was previously home to Northampton High School, an independent Northampton girls' school.
  The 127.45 m (418 ft 2 in) tall National Lift Tower is a dominant feature and visible from most of the town. A Terry Wogan radio phone-in during the 1980s came up with the name "Northampton Lighthouse" as Northampton is one of the furthest places from the sea. It is also known as the "Cobblers' Needle". It was built for testing new lifts at the Express Lifts factory, now closed. Though now redundant, it is a listed building.
  The former Greyfriars bus station served the town from 1976 until 2014. In the 2000s, it was featured on Channel 4's Demolition programme as the ugliest transport station in the United Kingdom and worthy of demolition. Demolition work began in March 2014, following the move of bus services to North Gate bus station. The Greyfriars was completely destroyed on 15 March 2015 by way of a contr
caption: The National Lift Tower is a prominent feature of the town's skyline
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