Plymouth, Guildhalls

PLYMOUTH
DATA

The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History

PLYMOUTH GUILDHALLS

In 1869 plans were invited for the design of a new Guildhall to replace the one at the top of the High Street. Twenty sets of plans were received.

The result was the present Guildhall opposite the Civic Centre. It was built in 1873 by a local man, Mr John Pethick, although the original tender in the amount of £32,475 had been awarded in June 1870 to the partnership of Messrs Call and Pethick, one of twelve firms to tender. Mr Pethick became the Mayor in 1898.

It was designed by Messrs Alfred Norman and James Hine of Plymouth. The foundation stone of the Guildhall, Law Courts and Municipal Offices was laid at the angle of the great tower in Westwell Street on July 28th 1870 by the Mayor, William Luscombe.

Constructed in the "early pointed" style, it was opened on August 13th 1874 by HRH the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. The Council Chamber and Municipal Offices part were formally opened by the Mayor, John Kelly, in April 1872 and were occupied on April 16th 1873. The cost, including decorative works, was some £50,000. The interior of the great hall was 146 feet by 58 feet. The tower was 180 feet high.

At the western end of the Guildhall is the Great Tower, square to 160 feet and then surmounted by a spire rising to 60 feet above this. At the western end of the old Municipal block stood a statue of Mr Rooker, Mayor, which was unveiled on September 19th 1878.

A 'Father Willis' four-manual organ was inaugurated in the Guildhall on Tuesday October 22nd 1878. Doctor John Stainer, the organist at St Paul's Cathedral and the Albert Hall in London performed the initial recital. The Guildhall no longer has an organ.

The Guildhall and Municipal Offices managed to survive the first night of the Plymouth Blitz of 1941 but were gutted by fire during the night of March 20th/21st. Only two months before, when the City was short of cooking facilities, hundreds of Plymothians had packed the Guildhall for a very welcome hot lunch.

As a result of this damage, the Guildhall was very nearly demolished. In fact when the Minister of Works, Mr R R Stokes, visited the site on July 22ns 1950, he said it should be knocked down. Luckily the Council decided in October 1951 to rebuild the historic meeting place at an estimated cost of £95,000.

The task of restoration was given to the City Architect, Mr Hector Stirling. Work started in January 1953 and soon over 1,000 tons of debris had been cleared away. This was chiefly the shell of the old Council Chamber and Municipal Offices, which were demolished in 1947 to make way for Royal Parade. During restoration the Guildhall was "reversed" and the new entrance was placed where the stage used to be in the pre-War Guildhall.

It was re-opened amid much ceremony by Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, KG, GCB, DSO, on September 24th 1959.

The interior is brightly lit by three huge chandeliers representing the old "Three Towns" (Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport). Behind the stage is the Gobelin Tapestry, lent by Lord Clarendon, whose ancestor received it from Napoleon III. It portrays Raphael's conception of the miraculous draught of fishes, which is a particularly appropriate subject. During the three-year long Siege of Plymouth during the Civil War, starving Plymothians were saved by the appearance in Sutton Harbour of a shoal of pilchards.

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