page_title: Nottingham Council House
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Nottingham Council House / History
caption_attribution_description: English: opening of the Council House, Nottingham - 22 May 1929
context_page_description: Nottingham Council House is the city hall of Nottingham, England. The 200 feet high dome that rises above the city is the centrepiece of the skyline and presides over the Old Market Square. It is a Grade II* listed building.
context_section_description: The Council House was commissioned to replace the former Nottingham Exchange. It was designed by Thomas Cecil Howitt in the Neo-Baroque style and built between 1927 and 1929.
  Housed within the dome the affectionately-nicknamed ‘Little John’ hour bell – the deepest toned clock bell in the United Kingdom, weighing over 10 tonnes (10 t) – whose strike can be heard for a distance of seven miles.
  The foundation stone (behind the left-hand lion as you approach the building) was laid by Alderman Herbert Bowles (Chairman of the Estates Committee), on 17 March 1927. The total cost of the building at the time was £502,876 (equivalent to £30,800,000 in 2019). By the time the bill was finally cleared in 1981, the total including interest was £620,294 (equivalent to £37,990,000 in 2019). The building was officially opened by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII and subsequently the Duke of Windsor) on 22 May 1929.
  The building has staged many high-profile occasions with royalty, statesmen and women, and stars of the stage and screen. Both the FA Cup in 1959, and the European Cup in 1979 and 1980, have been held aloft from its balcony.
  Since Nottingham City Council relocated councillors’ offices to Loxley House in 2010, the Council House is seldom used for day-to-day administrative functions.  From April 2011, the building also now serves as the chief Register Office for Births, Marriages and Deaths in the City.
caption: Scene in the Old Market Square for the official opening of the Council House, 22 May 1929
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