Extension to Salford Town Hall

 The original Town hall 1825. Richard Lane. (Austin, pp. 100‑1)

Some alterations and improvements are about to be made at the Salford Town hall, from plans by Messrs Travis & Mangnall at a cost of about £500, according to estimates sent in. [The Builder 1849: 248]

IMPROVEMENTS AT SALFORD TOWN HALL -  It will be in the remembrance of our readers, that the Salford town council some months since sanctioned a plan for making extensive and important alterations and improvements in the Salford Town Hall improvements imperatively required by the increase of municipal business of the borough. These works, with some extensions engrafted upon the original plan, have been since vigorously carried on and are now nearly completed. Their effect is not merely to add considerably to the disposable room, but by rendering the various parts of the building accessible from a common staircase, materially to economise the time of the corporation officials, and to give the heads of departments more ready and efficient control over the subordinate officers. To commence with the outside of the building, - the small and narrow steps which formerly led up to the entrance door of the Town Hall have been removed, and large and broad ones substituted; and the lamps which formerly stood on each side of the doorway have been removed to the opposite side of the street. A new Grecian doorway has been put in with a glazed screen extending across the entrance hall. It will be remembered that the entrance door of the Town Hall was formerly into a sort of open arcade, communicating at the other end with the yard. This is now made into a good entrance hall, by closing up the end opposite the entrance by wall, erected about 12 feet further up the yard than the former external wall of the building. This has given room for the erection of a handsome stone staircase communicating with the whole of the upper floor of the building. Before noticing this, we had better mention the re-distribution of the ground floor. The old staircase on the east side of the Town-Hall having been removed, its site on the ground floor is made into an office for the town-clerk, who was without any accommodation at the Town Hall. The old police offices have been converted into two committee-rooms, with a retiring-room for a sub-committee, and the old borough court, with magistrate's retiring room, has been converted into offices for the borough treasurer and his clerks; their offices having been formerly on the other side of the building. Beneath one portion of these offices a fire-proof vault has been built, for the purpose of containing the records or the corporation; and upon the arch of this vault stands the fire-proof safe, containing the minute-books of the corporation; so that in case of fire, not merely would these important documents be rescued from destruction, but the safe containing them would be prevented from falling, and being covered with the mass of ruins. On the west side of the building, the old office for the borough treasurer’s clerks has now become the mayor's parlour, a fine room, 30 feet by 17 feet; and the borough treasurer's private room is now the mayor’s library. The west staircase is allowed to remain, as it will both give the mayor the advantage of private communication with the council chamber, and will enable access to be given to the great room in the event or any public meeting, without bringing a number of persons through the business part of the Town Hall. The main staircase, which is directly opposite the entrance door, is entirely of stone with stone pedestals and balustrades; it is lighted by three Grecian windows, and by a glazed coffered ceiling, supported by pilasters and Corinthian columns. The main staircase is six feet wide between the balustrades, and the top two flights lead to landings on the east and west sides; upon which the various rooms on the upper floor open. The landing on the east side is very spacious; extending over the site of the former east staircase. In order to communicate with this landing, a way is made through what was formerly a window through the external wall, looking into the back yard; this window, by the extension of the premises backwards, being now quite within the building. The east door of the large room opens upon this landing, and directly opposite is the door of the new robing room for the bar: through this room there is communication with the magistrates clerks’ office and the new Borough Court. The small staircase which formerly lead from the yard up to the mayor’s parlour has been removed and a flooring carried over its site; the space occupied by it and by the old mayor’s parlour will now be converted into two new committee rooms accessible from the east landing. Nothing has been done on the west side, except to open a communication through a window similar to that on the east side, to the landing at the top of the east stairs, upon which opens the west door of the large chamber, and from which a few steps lead down to the council chamber. As the west staircase is allowed to remain, the landing here is but small. In the adjoining rooms, consisting of the council chamber and ante-room, no alterations have been made. These are the whole of the interior alterations made; by which it will be seen that the following most important additions to the accommodations of the Town hall have been obtained; A good and commodious mayor’s parlour and library, instead of one most inconvenient in its situation, and narrow in its accommodation; an office for the town clerk, four new committee rooms and a robing room for the bar; besides all the advantages of converting an open arcade – from which in winter cold draughts radiated to all parts of the building – into a closed entrance hall; with the concentration of business given by the new main staircase. In addition to these internal alterations, but resulting from them, the external wall of the building between the main body of the Town Hall and the police office has been rebuilt; the windows in it being substantially face with stone. The cost of these alterations will, we believe, be between £700 and £800. The architects are Messrs Travis and Mangnall; and the contractor is Mr William Litherland, of Regent Road. [Manchester Guardian 17 October 1849 page 5]

Reference    Manchester Guardian 17 October 1849 page 5
Reference    Manchester Courier 20 October 1849 page 9
Reference    The Builder 1849: 248.