Ilkeston Town Hall
{{Short description|Municipal building in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox building
| name = Ilkeston Town Hall
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| status = Complete
| image = Town Hall Ilkeston.jpg
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| caption = Town Hall, Market Place, Ilkeston
| map_type = Derbyshire
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| building_type = Town Hall
| architectural_style = Italianate
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| client =
| owner = Erewash Borough Council
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| location =
| address = Market Place, Ilkeston, Derbyshire
| location_town =
| location_country = England
| coordinates = {{coord|52.970921|-1.309636|region:GB|display=inline,title}}
| groundbreaking_date =
| start_date = 1866Nottinghamshire Guardian – Friday 5 October 1866
| completion_date = 1868
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| architect = Richard Charles Sutton
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| classification = {{Designation list
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| designation1 = Grade II Listed Building
| designation1_offname =
| designation1_date = 6 November 1986
| designation1_number = {{NHLE|num=1280610|short=y|postscript=none}}
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Ilkeston Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Place, Ilkeston, Derbyshire. The town hall, which currently serves as one of two meeting places of Erewash Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.{{NHLE |desc=Town Hall, Erewash|num=1280610 |accessdate=22 April 2015}}
History
In the first half of the 19th century, civic meetings had been held in a room above the Butter Market in the lower Market Place and, from the 1840s, the local board of health met in a domestic house on East Street.{{cite web|url= https://www.erewash.gov.uk/media/files/Environment-and-Planning/Planning/Conservation/Ilkeston_Town_Hall_-_a_short_history.pdf|title=Ilkeston Town Hall – A Short History|publisher=Erewash Borough Council|accessdate=8 April 2010}} These facilities were deemed inadequate and a site for a new building was selected which was, at that time, occupied a row of thatched cottages.
The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the Duke of Rutland on 27 September 1866.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cbySDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA65|title=History of Ilkeston: together with Dale Abbey, Kirk Hallam, Shipley and Cossall|page=55 |first=Edwin|last=Trueman|year= 1880|publisher=John F. Walker|isbn=1897834012}} The new building, which was designed by Richard Charles Sutton of Nottingham in the Italianate style and built by William Warner of Ilkeston, was officially opened on 6 February 1868.{{cite web|url=http://www.oldilkeston.co.uk/the-town-hall/|title=The Town Hall|publisher=Old Ilkeston|accessdate=8 April 2010}} The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the Market Place; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a recessed rounded headed doorway flanked by brackets supporting a balcony. The other bays on the ground floor and all the bays on the first floor were fenestrated by round headed windows and, at roof level, there was a balustrade. Following the grant of a Royal Charter, the town hall became the headquarters of the Municipal Borough of Ilkeston in 1887.{{cite web|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/12b51607-d97a-4bed-b8b6-c83eedcfaaa0|title=Ilkeston Corporation|publisher=National Archives|accessdate=8 April 2010}}
In 1892, during a concert by the Ilkeston and District Harmonic Society, heat from the newly installed lighting caused timbers in the roof to catch fire but the fire was quickly extinguished.Sheffield Daily Telegraph and the Derby Daily Telegraph – Tuesday 1 March 1892 Another fire was successfully extinguished before much damage was done in 1924.Derby Daily Telegraph – Tuesday 4 November 1924
Following local government re-organisation in 1974,{{cite book|title=Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70|publisher=The Stationery Office Ltd|isbn=0-10-547072-4|year=1997}} the newly formed authority, Erewash Borough Council, split its operations between Ilkeston Town Hall and Long Eaton Town Hall.{{cite web|url=https://www.erewash.gov.uk/the-council-popular/contact-the-council.html|title=Contact the council|publisher=Erewash Borough Council|accessdate=25 December 2021}} The assembly hall at Ilkeston Town Hall was partitioned to form a Council Chamber at that time and the building was extended to create extra office space in 1975 and again 1981. In 2014, three war memorials in the form of bronze plaques located outside the town hall, which commemorate the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War, were fully restored.{{cite web|url=http://www.warmemorials.org/search-grants/?gID=1179|title=Ilkeston Town Hall Plaques|publisher=War Memorials Trust|accessdate=8 April 2010}}{{cite web|url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/14241|title=Ilkeston – South African War|publisher=Imperial War Museum|accessdate=8 April 2020}}