Darlington Town Hall

Darlington sought a new town hall from as early as 1935 to replace its existing Victorian building that was designed by Alfred Waterhouse (1863). The new scheme commenced after 1956, when building licensing had ceased and the council felt justified in redirecting funds and attention to such priorities. It was designed by the Borough Architect, E.A. Tornbohm and Chief Assistant Architect W.T. Boyd, with William Faulkner Brown & Partners acting in collaboration due to staff shortages in the department. The original designs were subject to approval by the Royal Fine Arts Commission before they were given the ministerial green light. Costs were also driven by central government standards and once each chief officer had outlined their departmental spatial needs an allowance of only 10% was given for future increases in staff. This drive for efficiency affected the form and materiality of the buildings where it was accepted that they had to be ‘simple and restrained and modern methods of construction and modern materials would have to be exploited to render the project viable’ [1]. Built in three clear parts, a council suite, administrative offices and a rates hall, construction began in January 1967. The reinforced concrete frame is set upon 500 concrete piles that had to be carefully driven due to the proximity of the Parish Church. The town hall was intended not to compete with the architecture of the Church and a unified landscape scheme with bunding to screen car parking was executed across the site. The granite aggregate panels were supposed to be in keeping with the vernacular and to give a monolithic quality to the main block in contrast to the glazed rates hall (now significantly remodelled). The entrance foyer was lined in travertine marble, a rare moment of opulence reserved for particular spaces in the building – the council chamber was lined in elm and the committee rooms were panelled in teak. Initially, five principal departments had their own floors , those of the Treasurer, Town Clerk, Education, Borough Surveyor and Borough Architect. The town hall was completed in advance of the general reconstruction of the town centre to be ‘restrained in character and free from ostentation’ but to ‘give a lead’ to what wouod follow. Outside on the plaza a stainless steel sculpture, Resurgence, by John Hoskin was funded by the Civic Project Committee, sponsored by the local Lions’ Club.

[1] The New Town Hall Darlington (1970, commemorative brochure)