Listed Building record MDR14950 - Old Town Hall, Bakewell

A grade II listed town hall; now in use as a shop. It was built in 1602, altered in 1709 and restored in the 20th century. It is built of coursed limestone with ashlar sandstone dressings and has a stone slate roof. It is a two storey, two-window range. There is also a wing to the rear and attached external steps on the right return. It has large quoins. The ground floor has chamfered ashlar piers infilled by wood-mullioned windows with leaded lights. There is a studded door to the right of the central pier. It has wooden lintels with two armorial crests. The first floor has a central lead downpipe with a rounded hopper, and restored three-light chamfered, mullioned windows beneath a continuous dripmould. There are ashlar copings to the parapet and end gables; an end stack with bands to the left; and a 19th century bellcote to the right end that has a battered, quoined base. The external steps to the ground-floor right have ashlar side walls. The building originally served as the Town Hall on the upper floor with St John's Hospital beneath. After 1709 the almsmen were housed in St John's Hospital almshouses to the rear [see SMR 877]. The building was later served as Buttermarket and also as Lady Manners Grammar School. See List description for more details. (1) A two-storey building with the ground floor as accommodation for poor and single men and the upper floor as the town hall and court. Court sessions had been held in Bakewell since 1584. The original building may have incorporated features of an earlier chapel. A rebuild of the site had been noted in 1709. The town hall had a number of uses including being used as a fire station, Lady Manners Grammar School, a working man's club and various shops. It was also used for church services in the 1820s. The cells on the side of the building were in existence until the 1960s. (2)