Leicester Town Hall

Leicester Town Hall stands in the city centre of Leicester, England, in a square which contains a fountain. The building is the town hall of the city of Leicester and also contains Leicester Bike Park.

The town hall was built on the former cattle market between 1874 and 1876 in the Queen Anne Style by Francis Hames and is a Grade II. Before it was built, the Guildhall acted as the town hall.

Leicester Town Hall covers an area of nearly 7,000 m² and claims (Leicester City Council) to be the most energy-efficient in the UK following a £80,000 investment in 1994. The installation of a number of energy-saving measures has reduced heating costs by more than £13,000 in less than ten years.

On the first Wednesday of each month, a free tour is given by a Blue Badge tourist guide, which starts at 2 pm and lasts up to 2 hours and concludes with tea and biscuits in the Lord Mayor's Tea Room. Contrary to the notice board outside, visitors do not need tickets for the tour. Some history is given of the building, including details of previous Lord Mayors etc. and one can visit the former courtroom and the current main council chamber.

Town Hall Square fountain

Leicester Town Council accepted on 29 October 1878, "a handsome ornamental fountain to be placed in the centre of the land fronting the Town Hall Buildings" which was a gift to the Borough from Sir Israel Hart, a former Mayor of Leicester. It is constructed of bronze-painted cast iron, Shap granite and Ross of Mull granite. Francis Hames, the architect of the town hall, also designed the layout of Town Hall Square and the fountain, which was unveiled by Sir Israel Hart on 24 September 1879. Is it said to be based on a similar fountain Hames saw in at Porto in Portugal, although this is unlikely, as the Town Hall Square fountain is the earlier work (1879, with the Porto one being accepted in 1885). There are very strong similarities, which suggests that the Val d’Osne foundry copied the Leicester fountain for the Porto installation

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Leicester Town Hall" and modified on July 23, 2019 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.