Godalming Borough Hall

The town of Godalming was incorporated as a borough by a charter issued in 1575 from Elizabeth I.{{cite web |title=Godalming Town Council - A brief history |url=https://godalming-tc.gov.uk/history-of-the-council/ |website=Godalming Town Council |access-date=3 February 2024}} The first municipal building in Godalming was an 18th-century market hall in the High Street which was used to accommodate French prisoners following the capture of Belle Île in June 1761.{{cite web|url=http://www.godalmingmuseum.org.uk/index.php?page=timeline

|title=Timeline to 1836| publisher=Godalming Museum| access-date=21 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140628033019/http://www.godalmingmuseum.org.uk/index.php?page=timeline|archive-date=28 June 2014}} It was replaced by the current market hall, The Pepperpot, which was designed by John Perry in the neoclassical style, built by public subscription and completed in 1814.{{NHLE|desc=The Pepper Pot|num=1044496|access-date=21 May 2021}}{{cite web|title= 'Parishes: Godalming', in A History of the County of Surrey|volume= 3|first=H. E.|last= Malden |location=London|year=1911|pages= 24–42|publisher= British History Online |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/surrey/vol3/pp24-42 |access-date= 21 May 2021}} The borough was reformed with elected officials in accordance with the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.{{cite book |title=Municipal Corporations Act |date=1835 |page=462 |url=https://archive.org/details/statutesunitedk35britgoog/page/462/mode/2up?q=godalming |access-date=3 February 2024}}

After civic leaders decided that the assembly room in the Pepperpot was inadequate for public meetings, a public hall was erected in Bridge Street: it was designed by Henry Peak, built using brown rubble masonry and completed in 1861.{{cite web|url=https://www.parishmouse.co.uk/surrey/godalming-surrey-family-history-guide/ |title=Godalming|publisher=The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales|year=1870|access-date=21 May 2021}}{{cite web|url= https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/497147/143283/12/100341 |title=Ordnance Survey Map|year=1871| access-date=21 May 2021}}{{cite web|url= http://www.godalmingmuseum.org.uk/index.php?page=timeline-from-1837 |title=Timeline from 1837|publisher=Godalming Museum| access-date=21 May 2021}}

In May 1907 tenders were invited from contractors to extend the public hall in Bridge Street to the west to create new municipal buildings for the borough.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FExOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA582 |title=Contracts|publisher=The Builder|date=11 May 1907|page=582}} The extension was built in red brick with stone dressings and the work was completed in 1908. The design of the enlarged structure involved an asymmetrical main frontage with ten bays facing onto Bridge Street; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured arcading on the ground floor, three sash windows with stone surrounds on the first floor and a pediment above with an oculus in the tympanum. The left hand section featured, in the central bay, a doorway with a canopy on the ground floor and a panel containing the borough coat of arms on the first floor. The right hand section featured, in the end bay which slightly projected forward, a round headed doorway on the ground floor and a tri-part sash window on the first floor with a pediment above.{{cite web|url= https://www.francisfrith.com/uk/godalming/godalming-municipal-buildings-1908_59949 |title=Godalming Municipal Buildings|publisher=Francis Frith|year=1908|access-date=21 May 2021}}

The building continued to serve as the meeting place of Godalming Borough Council for much of the 20th century,{{London Gazette|issue=45920|page=2912|date=2 March 1973}} but ceased to be the local seat of government when Waverley Borough Council was formed with its headquarters in Guildford in 1974.{{cite book|title=Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70|publisher=The Stationery Office Ltd|isbn=0-10-547072-4|year=1997}}{{London Gazette|issue=46409|page=11667|date=22 November 1974}} Waverley Council moved to new council offices in The Burys just behind the borough hall in 1980.{{London Gazette|issue=48292|page=12247|date=29 August 1980}} The borough hall subsequently served as the headquarters of Godalming Town Council,{{cite web|url= https://godalming-tc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/0.-19-December-2019-Full-Council-Agenda-Electronic-Version.pdf |title= Full Council Minutes|date=19 December 2019|publisher= Godalming Town Council| access-date=21 May 2021}} until 2021 when the council moved its offices to a converted shop at 107–109 High Street and its meetings to the Waverley council chamber at The Burys.{{cite news |title=Town council's new office is in building dating back to 1446 |url=https://godalming.nub.news/news/local-news/town-council39s-new-office-is-in-building-dating-back-to-1446 |access-date=3 February 2024 |work=Godalming Nub News |date=31 March 2021}}{{cite web |title=Council agenda, 13 May 2021 |url=https://godalming-tc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/0.-13-May-2021-Annual-Council-Agenda-EV.pdf |website=Godalming Town Council |access-date=3 February 2024}}

Works of art in the borough hall include a portrait by Godfrey Kneller of the locally-born sailor, Admiral Sir John Balchen,{{cite web|url= https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/vice-admiral-sir-john-balchin-12470 |title= Vice Admiral Sir John Balchin|first=Godfrey|last=Kneller|publisher=Art UK| access-date=21 May 2021}} who became governor of the Greenwich Naval Hospital in March 1743.{{London Gazette|issue=8309|page=11|date=10 March 1743}}

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Category:Government buildings completed in 1861

Category:City and town halls in Surrey

Category:Godalming