This is probably one of the oldest photographs we have of this historic civic building. The veranda was later replaced with a cast iron structure which has also been removed. Under this are the trestles for use in the market. The water pump seen in the foreground was part of the towns water supply c1865.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
This interesting, very early photograph of the north-side of the Town House seems to indicate that it was built in two distinct sections. The main council-chamber and public-gallery was in the large room behind the arch topped windows, with large venetian-style windows on it’s east and west elevation. This is similar to the Town House at Yarm, which consists of one meeting-room at 1st floor level and is also situated as a 4-sided structure in the centre of the High Street. The clock tower and what seems to be two levels of administration offices, appears to be a later add-on. Or was it the other way around? The colonnaded canopy would originally have offered some shelter for persons arriving at, (or emerging from) the upper chamber entry doors at street level in their horse-drawn carriages, during inclement weather. As the caption says, this was later replaced by a similar ironwork structure that featured a balcony, or terrace, leading directly from the council-chamber, from which ceremonial addresses could be made to the townspeople. There are some photographs on Picture Stockton that shows this in place until just prior to WWII. Perhaps it was later removed as being deemed no longer essential and therefore being of some use to the ‘War-effort’, during which miles of railings, balustrades, window-grilles and other non-essential decorative metal features across the UK, were melted down for scrap?