Building record 438/14/0 - Warrington Town Hall (Bank Hall)

<1> Warrington Borough Council, Thomas Patten and Bank Hall (Book). SCH3816.

Bank Hall was built 1750 for Thomas Patten, a wealthy merchant. It was built in the open countryside near to Patten's copper smelting works at Bank Quay. Waste from the copper works was moulded into blocks which were used for the foundations, floors and walls of the cellars. The window frames are largely made from copper. It is probably one of the last buildings to be designed by the architect James Gibb.

<2> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 58841 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Built 1750 by Gibbs, formerly Bank Hall, seat of Patten family. Pevsner opinion 'finest house of its date in South Lancashire'. Palladian, three storeys, rusticated stone facing to red brick, hipped slate roof, brick parapet, stone modillioned cornice. Main front has slight central projection with four three quarter Corinthian columns frieze and pediment with coat of arms. Nine sash windows with glazing bars, in moulded architraves, first floor having alternate segmental and pointed pediment except three centre ones between columns, which are arched. Centre first floor double doors up flight of stone steps with iron railings and four lamps. Curved flanking walls run from main house to entrances to side courts. Contemporary R W Hs and pipes. Garden front similar but no columns. Interior has two stone staircases with iron balustrades and plasterwork. Detached service block at each side, long rectangular plan, similar but not identical in detail; two storeys, with three-storeyed centre finished with a pediment, centre rusticated stone, side wings brick, whole of thirteen bays. East and west drives in front have five iron standard lamps with round lanterns. Entrance gateway in front has four square hollow iron piers of patterned tracery, six iron gates of elaborate ornament, all about twenty feet high, with four angels on tops of piers, and a round arch over the centre supporting the coat of arms; this entrance was exhibited at London Exhibition of 1862.

<3> Higham N J, 1984-9, Professor Nick Higham's Aerial Photographs, 1986/1/4, 01/08/1986 (Aerial Photograph). SCH7659.

<4> Pevsner N, 1969, The Buildings of England: South Lancashire, p.413-4 (Book). SCH3081.

'…This was built in 1750 by Gibbs as Thomas Patten's country house…It was called Bank Hall. It is the finest house of its date in South Lancashire…'

<5> Warrington Borough Council, Various, Warrington Borough Council, Warrington Town Hall (31/01/2019) (Web Site). SCH8640.

In 1873 the owner, Colonel Wilson Patten, later Lord Winmarleigh, sold the building to the council and it became Warrington Town Hall.

<6> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Land Line and Master Map Vector Maps, 31/01/2019 (Maps and Plans). SCH4491.