Manly Town Hall

Manly Town Hall
Manly Town Hall in 2013
Former names	Llangollen
General information
Type	Government town hall
Architectural style	Inter-war Neo-Georgian style with Egyptian Revival features.
Address	Gilbert & Belgrave Streets
Town or city	Manly, New South Wales
Country	Australia
Construction started	12 June 1937
Completed	1937
Client	Manly Municipal Council
Owner	Northern Beaches Council (current)
Design and construction
Architect	Samuel Reginald Maisey
Architecture firm	Trenchard Smith & Maisey
Main contractor	Stuart Bros. Ltd.

The Manly Town Hall is a landmark civic building in Manly, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It stands at the junction of the The Corso, Gilbert St. and Belgrave St., opposite Manly ferry wharf. Designed in the Neo-Georgian revival style with Egyptian Revival style columns by Samuel Reginald Maisey, it replaced the previous town hall on the site, a Victorian Mansion built in 1879. The Town Hall was the seat of Manly Council from 1937 to 2016, when it became one of the seats of the new Northern Beaches Council.

The original building on this site was a Victorian mansion known as "Llangollen", which was built in 1879 as the residence of William Howard Rolfe (1818–1879), a prominent landowner and member of the Manly community. While Rolfe did not live long enough to reside there, the Rolfe Family lived there until it became a branch of the and was finally purchased in 1909 by Manly Municipal Council. Manly Council, which had been incorporated in 1877, had been meeting in temporary premises including the original Ivanhoe Hotel in Ivanhoe Park, until 1909, and from then on Llangollen served as the new council chambers. However the size and style of the building was too small and unsuited to the needs of the council, despite the mansion having been purchased for the sum of £5000.

For many years a debate raged over the construction of a new Town Hall at the present site. In May 1911 the mayor, Alderman James Bonner, passed through council a resolution that asked the council to "take into consideration the advisability of calling tenders for competitive designs for a Town Hall, to be erected on the present site." In July 1912, the council appointed a sub-committee to examine the details of such a project, but found its firm opposition from Alderman Adam Ogilvy, who clashed in council with Alderman Ellison Quirk. In 1919, when Council proposed its first post-war loan for major public works, the new Town Hall was quickly eliminated as a project and by 1921 a protest committee headed by Alderman Ogilvy, conducted a successful campaign against any proprosal, demanding that a referendum be held before any money was spent on such a project. The council committee also consulted the NSW President of the Institute of Architects, Sir Charles Rosenthal on the matter of the project. By May 1924, council established a competition for the design, to be administered by Rosenthal. A referendum was held in conjunction with the 1925 Council elections. Two propositions were put, for a new £40,000 Town Hall on the current site or £15,000 for a new Council Hall and offices and ‘making provision for an Art Gallery’ in front of the existing building. Both were heavily defeated.