Guest Jeremy Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Not sure if this has been discussed before. I found a couple of unsuccessful designs for the Town Hall on Picture Sheffield. I like the Flockton and Gibbs design H.T. Hare: http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s22686 Flockton & Gibbs: http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s22687 http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s22688 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardB Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 How does the finished article compare to other Town Halls ? in terms of Year, design, cost, height/dimensions, finished year and backhandered-influenceness please ? e.g. Leeds. Manchester. Answered on the back of a used fiver to the usual address ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeremy Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 The council website says that 178 designs were submitted. Here's another one: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 Not sure if this has been discussed before. I found a couple of unsuccessful designs for the Town Hall on Picture Sheffield. I like the Flockton and Gibbs design H.T. Hare: http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s22686 Flockton & Gibbs: http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s22687 http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/pi...ff.refno=s22688 The alternative designs are not unattractive and had they been built they would have been OK but instead of looking "Victorian" like the current building (which of course IS Victorian) the alternatives look decidedly more "Gothic". They wouldn't look out of place in the centre of a Belgian or German town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeremy Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 The alternative designs are not unattractive and had they been built they would have been OK but instead of looking "Victorian" like the current building (which of course IS Victorian) the alternatives look decidedly more "Gothic". They wouldn't look out of place in the centre of a Belgian or German town. You're right, the winning design was probably perceived as being more modern. I found this passage in Victorian and Edwardian town halls By Colin Cunningham: This brings us back to the problem of a symbolic language and its need to be both easily recognisable and yet varied enough to express the specific character of a town. Directly derivative buildings were equally unappealing, and another of the unsuccessful designs for Sheffield town hall offered an English version of the campanile at Venice. Mountford's winning design was successful because, of all its free composition and looseness, it was decked out with easily recognisable ornaments of grandeur—friezes, columns, pedimented windows and arched openings with carved spandrels. There was plenty to recognise here, yet the scheme offered enough variety to allow for free planning inside; and when Mountford was asked to extend the building in 1902 he had no difficulty in adding a further block that continued the me decorative pattern. The final section was built later still (1908–25) under another architect, though still to Mountford's plans, and manages to be a different piece that is still clearly part of the whole. Sheffield town hall is probably the showpiece of eclecticism, but it had many successors and many smaller buildings are in the same mode. The importance of the Sheffield building is that it repeated the message of Leicester in an even broader vocabulary, that eclecticism really could be a proper vehicle for grandeur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardB Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 We need a few great pictures of the Town Hall (pre-original extension, plus pre- and post eggbox) - any contributions please ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveHB Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 We need a few great pictures of the Town Hall (pre-original extension, plus pre- and post eggbox) - any contributions please ? You wont get much better thn this, considering the year it was taken .. www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardB Posted November 24, 2009 Share Posted November 24, 2009 You wont get much better thn this, considering the year it was taken .. www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk Thank you Steve, that RichardB used to post some good stuff, didn't he ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveH Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 You're right, the winning design was probably perceived as being more modern. I found this passage in Victorian and Edwardian town halls By Colin Cunningham: Or the losing designs were seen as being too foreign / Continental. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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