County Hall, Chester
County Hall
County Hall is located in Cheshire
County Hall
County Hall
Location within Cheshire
General information
Architectural styleNeo-Georgian style
AddressChester, Cheshire
CountryUnited Kingdom
Coordinates53°11′09″N 2°53′28″W / 53.1857°N 2.8912°W / 53.1857; -2.8912
Completed1957
Design and construction
Architect(s)E. Mainwaring Parkes

County Hall is a former municipal building on Castle Drive in Chester, Cheshire, England. It was the headquarters of Cheshire County Council and is now the Wheeler building campus of the University of Chester.

History

Originally Cheshire County Council held its meetings at the Crewe Arms Hotel, conveniently located near to Crewe station in Crewe.[1] After deciding that this arrangement was inadequate for their needs in the context of the increasing responsibilities of county councils, county leaders chose to procure a new county headquarters. The site selected – immediately to the south east of the old shire hall on the north bank of the River Dee – had previously been occupied by a late 18th century prison designed by Thomas Harrison, which had been demolished in 1902.[2][3]

The new building was designed by E. Mainwaring Parkes, the County Architect, in the Neo-Georgian style. Construction started in 1938 but the Second World War caused delays, and the new county hall was only officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 11 July 1957.[4] The principal room was the council chamber.[5]

Following the abolition of the County Council in March 2009, the new unitary authority, Cheshire West and Chester Council chose to occupy a modern building on the site of a former police headquarters and overlooking the Chester Racecourse.[6][7][8] County Hall became surplus to requirements and was sold to the University of Chester for £10.3 million.[9][10] It was then converted for educational use as the university's Wheeler Building, named after the university's first vice-chancellor, Tim Wheeler, so that it could accommodate the university's Faculties of Health and Social Care and Education and Children's Services.[5][11] The council chamber was converted into a large lecture theatre.[5]

Description

The design has a symmetrical main frontage with seventeen bays facing onto Castle Drive with the end bays projecting forwards. The central section features a portico on the ground floor containing a doorway flanked by columns; there is a window on the first floor and another on the second floor again flanked by columns which support an entablature with two finials above.[5] Pevsner's verdict was that the building was "not an ornament to the riverside view".[12]

References

  1. ↑ "County Council Archives". National Archives. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  2. ↑ Barrow, J. S.; Herson, J. D.; Lawes, A. H.; Riden, P. J.; Seaborne, M. V. J. (2005). "'Major buildings: Castle', in A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 Part 2, the City of Chester: Culture, Buildings, Institutions, ed. A T Thacker and C P Lewis". London: British History Online. pp. 204–213. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  3. ↑ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1913. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  4. ↑ "The Queen in Chester in the 1950s or 1960s". Cheshire Live. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "University opens former County Hall to public". University of Chester. 25 November 2010. Archived from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  6. ↑ "Cheshire West/Chester Uni County Hall deal approved". Place North West. 17 August 2009. Archived from the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  7. ↑ "Liberty/RREEF complete £19m HQ Chester sale". Place North West. 11 November 2009. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  8. ↑ Holmes, David (23 September 2010). "Cheshire West and Chester Council HQ is 21st century workplace". Cheshire Live. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  9. ↑ "Chester West & Chester Council to sell County Hall to University of Chester and move into HQ building". Cheshire Live. 17 August 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  10. ↑ Holmes, David (3 March 2011). "Cheshire's County Hall sale 'rushed', says auditor, but was still value for money". Cheshire Live. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  11. ↑ "Wheeler". University of Chester. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  12. ↑ Pevsner, Nikolaus; Hubbard, Edward (1978). Cheshire. Penguin Books. p. 158. ISBN 978-0140710427.
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