Friday, February 26, 2016

Hove Town Hall

Built 1880-82 after plans by Alfred Waterhouse, the new Gothic style town hall in Hove was opened in mid-December 1882. It was a two story, red brick building with additional dormers under the steeply pitched roof.


The exterior focal point of the building was the 120 ft tall by 19 ft wide clock tower located in the center of the main front facing Church Road. Salviati and Burke made the mosaics for the tower's four clock faces, which measured seven feet in diameter each.


A fire destroyed much of the building in 1966, and it was subsequently replaced with a more modern town hall.


Sources:
"Hove Town Hall." Hove, Portslade and Brighton in the Past.
Drury, Jennifer. "Hove Town Hall." My Brighton and Hove.
Bell, John. "Morning after the 1966 fire." My Brighton and Hove.
"Tenders and Contracts." The Furniture Gazette. Jan 6, 1883. 13.
"Building Intelligence." The Building News and Engineering Journal. Dec 22, 1882. 794.
Trimingham, Adam. "An Historic Hall." The Argus. July 16, 2012.