Old Town Hall, Stroud

The Old Town Hall stands in the Shambles, the little market place beside St Laurence's Church in the middle of Stroud. Built as a market house in the 1590s, it has a great oriel window on carved brackets over its front and is listed Grade II*.

History

The Old Town Hall was built as Stroud's market house by John Throckmorton, lord of the manor of Over Lypiatt. The Victoria County History dates it to about 1590, Stroud's local history society to about 1594, and the listing gives 1596. It first stood on its own in an open market place, with shops and stalls on the ground floor behind an arcade along its front; the houses and shops of the Shambles have since closed in round it. The listing compares it with the free-standing market houses of Minchinhampton, Tetbury and Dursley, its sloping site giving Stroud's a twist on the type.

School, court and council

Over the centuries the upper floors were let to a clothier and then used by the Red Boys' School. In 1816 the school moved up a floor so that the first floor could become the magistrates' court. In 1851 Francis Niblett added a Gothic extension on the north side for the county court, and in 1865 a thorough restoration altered the upper floors and probably added the battlemented staircase towers either side of the front. Stroud District Council bought the building from a local charity in 1975 and had its headquarters here until it moved to Ebley Mill in 1988. In February 2025 the council offered it on a long lease, on condition that the first-floor hall stays open for public bookings, with the ground-floor stores used by Shambles market traders let under their own tenancies.

What to look for

The front to the Shambles is the thing to see, and the listing describes it in detail:

• The middle window of the first floor, an eight-light oriel carried on a central pier, corbelled out on scrolled brackets, with two Tuscan columns on high plinths against it
• On the ground floor, two four-centred arches on either side of two round arches whose keystones are carved as lions' masks
• The mid nineteenth-century staircase wings on either side, in ashlar with battlemented parapets, paired lancets and quatrefoil windows, and the two big buttresses that prop the front
• The hammer-dressed rubble walls, two storeys with two attic storeys under a central gable

The building forms a listed group with the Bedford Arms and Nos 53 to 55 High Street.

Visiting

The Old Town Hall is seen from the Shambles, which is open at all times; the rooms inside are offices and a meeting hall, not a museum. The best time to come is a market day. The Shambles market trades round it every Friday and Saturday, except Good Friday and the weekend between Christmas and New Year, and on Saturday mornings the farmers' market fills Cornhill and the streets nearby.

Getting there

The Shambles is off the High Street, a few steps from St Laurence's Church. Stroud station is a few minutes' walk down the hill, buses stop at Merrywalks, and London Road car park (GL5 2AJ) is close. None of our live walks passes it, but the Rodborough Common walk is a short drive south.

Nearby

St Laurence's Church is next door and the Subscription Rooms are down the hill on George Street. Woodruffs and Salt Bakehouse are close for coffee, and Stroud Farmers' Market runs on Saturday mornings. To see its cousins, the market houses at Minchinhampton and Tetbury still stand on their pillars.