The County Hall is a municipal building complex in Pegs Lane, Hertford, Hertfordshire. The building, which is the headquarters of Hertfordshire County Council, is a Grade II* listed building.[1]
County Hall, Hertford | |
---|---|
Location | Hertford, Hertfordshire |
Coordinates | 51°47′27″N 0°04′53″W / 51.7908°N 0.0813°W |
Built | 1939 |
Architect | Charles Holloway James and Stephen Rowland Pierce |
Architectural style(s) | Neo-Georgian style with Scandinavian elements |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Designated | 9 September 1996 |
Reference no. | 1268807 |
Location of County Hall, Hertford in Hertfordshire |
The original Shire Hall for Hertfordshire was located in Fore Street in Hertford.[2] After deciding that Shire Hall was too restricted for future expansion, county leaders chose to procure a new county headquarters: the site they selected was open land located just off Pegs Lane.[3]
Construction of the new building began in spring 1937.[4] It was designed by Charles Holloway James and Stephen Rowland Pierce in the Neo-Georgian style with Scandinavian elements,[5] built by C. Miskin & Son of St Albans and opened without ceremony in summer 1939.[4] The first full council meeting in the building was held on 6 November 1939, when Queen Elizabeth sent a message of regret that the outbreak of the Second World War had prevented her fulfilling an earlier promise to formally open the building.[6]
The design for the building involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing the Bullocks Lane; the left section of three bays featured a portico with four full height piers supporting a frieze with the words "Tertium iam annum regnante Georgio VI haec curia aedificata est" ("This building was constructed during the third year of the reign of George VI"); the portico contained a doorway flanked by square windows on the ground floor and it contained tall sash windows in a recess on the first floor; there was a copper-clad cupola at roof level; the right section contained a loggia of eleven bays on the ground floor and seven sash windows on the first floor.[1] The principal room was the council chamber which was contained in a curved structure which jutted out of the main building to the west.[7]
The Hertfordshire Local Defence Volunteers was formed at County Hall, to provide a secondary line of defence in case of invasion by the forces of Nazi Germany and other Axis powers during the Second World War, in 1940.[8] The Hertfordshire Film Archive was established at the building in 1978.[9] Sculptures of two deer designed by Stephen Elson were erected outside County Hall, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the building, in 1989.[10]
Works of art in County Hall include a portrait of the Lord Chancellor, John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, by Godfrey Kneller[11] and a portrait of the local member of parliament, William Plumer, by Thomas Lawrence.[12]