page_title: Swanage Town Hall
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Swanage Town Hall / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: Swanage Town Hall, main entrance Deutsch: Swanage Town Hall, Haupteingang
context_page_description: Swanage Town Hall is a municipal building on Swanage High Street in Dorset. Constructed by the local building contractor George Burt in 1882–83, it reused materials salvaged from demolition works in London. The façade was rescued from London's 17th-century Mercers' Hall and the external clock is dated to 1826. It was not universally welcomed and one critic in the 1930s described it as "positively dreadful". The hall serves as the chamber for the current town council and has previously hosted the magistrates' court, fire brigade and citizens' advice service.
context_section_description: The site was previously occupied by "The Drong", a number of cottages operated by a church charity as almshouses. The town hall project was instigated by George Burt, as a means of instilling civic pride in the residents. Burt was a local building contractor who managed his uncle's construction firm Mowlem which carried out work on prominent buildings in London. Many of these were built with Purbeck stone shipped by barge from Swanage harbour. The barges required ballast to stabilise them for the return journey and Burt used material salvaged from buildings demolished in the capital for this. Many of these structures were re-erected in Swanage. The town hall reused the façade of the 1670 Mercers' Hall, designed by Edward Jerman, who was a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren. The town hall features original carvings of the Virgin Mary and two cherubs from the Mercers' Hall but other sculptures were destroyed in transit.
  The architect of the town hall was George Crickmay. His plans were approved in July 1882 and the building was completed by 1883, at a cost of £4,500. The building was originally known as King Alfred Hall. 
  The building is two storeys tall and constructed in Purbeck stone. There is a balcony on the front, accessed by two doors set in a semi-circular arch. The balcony has a small hood, Tuscan pilasters either side and a pediment above (on which a clock is mounted). The façade extends above the roof of the main building where it features a decorative stone balustrade. The clock on the front of the building was made by Thwaites & Reed of Clerkenwell, London, in 1826. It was possibly salvaged from the church of St Mary Somerset in Upper Thames Street, London, which was demolished in 1872. Other features likely to have been brought from London by Burt are the lamp posts either side of the entrance, two sculpted heads on the north and east faces of the structure and a pediment in the council chamber with the inscription "Fear God, Honour the King". A set of iron columns in the basement are thought to have been salvaged from Billingsgate Market in 1874. A bust of Burt was placed in the council chamber.
  The building did not receive universal approval. An architectural critic writing in the 1930s described the way that the façade had been incorporated into the building as "positively dreadful" and stated that "if ever a book comes to be written on 'How to murder Architecture', the Swanage Town Hall should find a place therein".
caption: Detail of entrance
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