Town Hall With Shops

In the mid-1870s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company to raise funds for the erection of an events venue in the town in order to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The site they selected was a focal location in the town facing the top of Hill Street. The building was designed by Frank Emley in the English Renaissance style, built with snecked masonry at a cost of £2,000 and was officially opened on 18 June 1887. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Princes Street; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a three-stage tower with an arched doorway with an architrave and a keystone in the first stage and…