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The Windsor Guildhall is the town hall of Windsor, Berkshire, England. It is situated in the High Street, about 100 meters (330 ft) from Castle Hill, which leads to the main public entrance to Windsor Castle .
A charter incorporating the borough was presented by the Lord of Glamorgan, Hugh le Despenser, Baron le Despenser, to the freemen of the town in 1346, [2] and an early guildhall was erected on the north side of Castle Green at around that time. [3] A school was established in the guildhall in 1739. [4]
A monument in the Great Hall of the Guildhall, London, by John Bell (1856) [15] Duke of Wellington Statue, The Bulwark, Brecon, Wales, by John Evan Thomas (1858) [16] Engraving of Dublin's Wellington Testimonial including the never completed equestrian statue. Wellington Monument, Dublin, by Robert Smirke (commenced 1817, completed 1861).
The oldest town hall, which was built as a chapel for pilgrims, is Dover Town Hall, thought to have been completed in around 1203, [2] while the oldest purpose-built town hall is Bury St Edmunds Guildhall, which dates back to around 1220. [3] The tallest town hall is Manchester Town Hall with a clock tower which rises to 280 feet (85 m). [4]
The council moved its main offices to Castle House in the grounds of Barnstaple Castle in 1927. A new civic centre on North Walk was built in 1969 which included council offices, a council chamber and a courthouse, after which the chamber at the Guildhall was only used for occasional ceremonial council meetings. [5]
In the United Kingdom, a guildhall is usually a town hall: in the vast majority of cases, the guildhalls have never served as the meeting place of any specific guild. A suggested etymology is from the Anglo Saxon "gild ", or "payment"; the guildhall being where citizens came to pay their rates. The London Guildhall was established around 1120. [1]
During the Second world War the Royal Observer Corps established a control centre in the guildhall. [7] [8] After the war the condition of the building deteriorated and it was placed in the Heritage At Risk register in the 1980s. [9] In July 2015 the Bury St Edmunds Heritage Trust launched a project to convert the guildhall into a heritage centre.
The site on which the current building stands had previously been occupied by a 16th-century mansion known as Castle Gates House, which was dismantled and moved to a new location near Shrewsbury Castle. [1] [3] The current building, which was designed for Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford, was completed in 1696. [1]