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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Bury Town Hall

Bury Town Hall is a municipal building in Knowsley Street, Bury, Greater Manchester, England. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Metropolitan Borough of Bury, is a locally listed building.

History

Until the mid-20th century, Derby Hall on Market Street accommodated the local council offices, but was no longer fit for purpose. The new building was designed, following an architectural competition, by Reginald Edmonds in the Neo-Georgian style in the 1930s. Construction was delayed by the Second World War and it was only officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 22 October 1954. The design incorporated an assembly hall which became known as the Elizabethan Suite.

The Whitehead Clock Tower, a memorial to Walter Whitehead, a local surgeon, dedicated in June 1914 and George Frampton's 'cheering fusilier', a tribute to those soldiers who had died in the Second Boer War, erected in 1920, are both structures which predate the current town hall and stand in Whitehead Garden to the south of the building. The garden itself was a gift from Sidney and Katherine Whitehead of Stormer Hill in Bury to commemorate the lives of seven people who were killed in Chapel Street by a V-1 flying bomb on 24 December 1944 during the Second World War.

The town hall was the headquarters of the County Borough of Bury until 1974 when it became the headquarters of the enlarged Metropolitan Borough of Bury. A three-dimensional relief of the enlarged borough's coat of arms, designed by Diana Childs, was installed in the council chamber in the mid-1970s. The Prince of Wales visited the town hall for a lunch meeting with the civic dignitaries on 14 December 1977.

In July 1992 Queen Elizabeth II chose the town hall as her destination on her inaugural journey on the Manchester Metrolink; she had lunch in the building on her arrival.

The building had to be closed for weddings and other public events in July 2020 after part of the ceiling on the second floor collapsed.

References

  1. ^ "Draft local list". Bury Council. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  2. ^ "Bury' Met set to re-open after £4.6 million refurbishment". About Manchester. 6 December 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Reginald Edmonds FRIBA". Old Edwardians Gazette. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  4. ^ Frain, Sean (2013). The Bury Book of Days. The History Press. ISBN 978-0752485829.
  5. ^ "Counties And Metropolitan Districts In England". Hansard. 6 July 1972. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  6. ^ "Lancashire Only - Queen Continues Lancashire Tour 1954". British Pathe. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  7. ^ "About the Elizabethan Suite". Bury Council. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  8. ^ Historic England. "Clock Tower, Whitehead or Tower Gardens (1067232)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  9. ^ Historic England. "Lancashire Fusiliers Boer War Memorial (1440258)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  10. ^ Wyke, Terry; Cocks, Harry (2004). Public Sculpture of Greater Manchester. Liverpool University Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0853235675.
  11. ^ "The Whitehead Garden". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  12. ^ "V1 flying bomb site, Chapel Street, Tottington near Bury". Air Crash Sites. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  13. ^ "Bury - A brief history". Bury Council. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  14. ^ "Death of town arts supporter". Bury Times. 21 September 2007. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  15. ^ "December 13-14". The Bolton News. 16 December 2002. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  16. ^ "Phase 1 of Metrolink". Transport for Greater Manchester. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  17. ^ "Court Circular". The Independent. 18 July 1992. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  18. ^ "Bury town hall closed after ceiling collapses - four weddings have had to be relocated". Manchester Evening News. 10 July 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2020.