Warrington Town Hall
| Warrington Town Hall | |
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Warrington Town Hall
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| Location | Warrington, Cheshire, England |
| Coordinates | 53°23′23″N 2°35′59″W / 53.3897°N 2.5997°WCoordinates: 53°23′23″N 2°35′59″W / 53.3897°N 2.5997°W |
| OS grid reference | SJ 602,882 |
| Built | 1750 |
| Built for | Thomas Patten |
| Architect | James Gibbs |
| Architectural style(s) | Palladian |
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Listed Building – Grade I
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| Designated | 6 December 1949 |
| Reference no. | 1329725 |
 Location in Cheshire
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Warrington Town Hall is in the town of Warrington, Cheshire, England. It consists of a house, originally called Bank Hall, flanked by two detached service wings at right angles to the house, one on each side. The house and the service wings are each recorded in the National Heritage List for England as designated Grade I listed buildings. At the time the house was built Warrington was in the historic county of Lancashire. The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner declared it to be "the finest house of its date in south Lancashire".
Bank Hall was built in 1750 for Thomas Patten. The architect was James Gibbs and it is likely that it was the last important building of his design to be completed in his lifetime. When it was built it stood in open countryside to the north of the town of Warrington. The Patten family were important merchants in the town. Thomas' father had made the lower River Mersey navigable from Runcorn to Bank Quay, Warrington, and had established a copper smelting factory at Bank Quay. In 1870 John Wilson-Patten, 1st Baron Winmarleigh, sold the hall to Warrington Borough Council for £9000 (equivalent to £780,000 in 2015), and 13 acres (5.3 ha) of surrounding land for a further £15,000 (equivalent to £1,290,000 in 2015). Almost all of the land was opened as Warrington's first public park in 1873. When the house was built, it was surrounded by a high wall. In 1895 this was replaced by iron railings and a fine set of gates.
The hall is built in Palladian style and has three storeys and a hipped slate roof. The front (south) façade has nine bays. The ground floor is in rusticated ashlar, as are the central three bays while the outer three bays on each side are in brick. The central area consists of a portico with four large ¾-attached Composite columns with a pediment bearing the arms of the Patten family. An open two-arm staircase, with a wrought iron balustrade, leads to the main entrance on the first floor. The north side of the hall is entirely of brick and is simpler. The whole house is built on a foundation made of blocks of copper slag from the Patten's smelting works. The detached service wings each have 13 bays and are similar to each other. Their middle three bays have three storeys and are in rusticated ashlar while the lateral bays have two storeys and are in brick.
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