29-645: Stoke-upon-Trent Town Hall is a municipal building in Glebe Street, Stoke-upon-Trent , Staffordshire , England. The town hall, which is the meeting place of Stoke-on-Trent City Council , is a Grade II listed building . The first town hall in Stoke-upon-Trent was erected in the Market Place between Market Street (now known as Hill Street) and Hide Street in 1794: it had arcading on the ground floor to allow markets to be held and an assembly room
58-517: A concert in the King's Hall on 26 January 1963. The building remained the local seat of government after the formation of the enlarged Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 1974. The new city council inherited additional facilities at Unity House in Hanley which had been completed in 1973, but as part of an initiative to co-locate its staff, the city council vacated Unity House and constructed a civic centre to
87-510: A new bus station opened in Hanley. This replaced the former bus station, on Lichfield Street. The new bus station was the first stage in the regeneration project which will see the previous bus station demolished, and replaced with a new centre consisting of shops, restaurants and a cinema. The new bus station is bigger than its predecessor, and has seen various routes in and out of the city changed to accommodate its location. The bus station features
116-461: A number of smaller independent operators, such as D&G Bus , and Arriva Midlands . In addition, National Express Coaches connect Hanley with destinations including London, Birmingham , Liverpool and Manchester , with additional seasonal services to holiday destinations. As part of the redevelopment of the town and wider city, a new bus interchange was opened on John Street in March 2013, allowing
145-569: A sheltered waiting area, Spar shop, cafe and toilets, is covered by CCTV, and has digital timetables showing information on travel times for the day, as well as Now/Next above the entrance to each bay. Access to the station is controlled by automatic doors, at both the pedestrian entrance and coach bays. The new bus station links Hanley with towns in North Staffordshire, as well as Buxton , Crewe , Shrewsbury , and Stafford . Most services are run by First Potteries , though there are
174-703: Is now a car park. The nearest railway station is in Stoke-on-Trent , 1.6 miles (2.6 km) south-southwest of Hanley bus station. Hanley is connected to the waterways network; it meets the Trent and Mersey Canal at Festival Park , it is also connected to the east of the country via the Cauldon Canal . Hanley has several cultural facilities such as the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery (a large ceramics collection, and restored Spitfire ),
203-597: Is one of the six towns that along with Hanley , Burslem , Fenton , Longton and Tunstall form the city of Stoke-on-Trent , in Staffordshire , England. The town was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1874. In 1910 the six towns federated to become the County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent and later the City of Stoke-on-Trent . Since federation in 1910 it has been the seat of the city's council, although
232-589: The Hanley and Longton area ignited the 1842 General Strike and associated Pottery Riots . The College Road drill hall was completed in 1903. The 1986 Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival led to the reclamation of large areas of land west of the city centre area – including the former Shelton steelworks , which had been derelict since 1978. When the Garden Festival closed, the land remained derelict for some time, before being re-developed partly into public parkland and partly for retail and leisure. In 2013,
261-521: The King's Hall and the Jubilee Hall were constructed to a design by Thomas Wallis and James Albert Bowden behind the main structure in 1911. The town hall became the headquarters of the new county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910 and King George V and Queen Mary visited the town hall and announced the town's advancement to city status on 5 June 1925. The rock band, the Beatles , performed at
290-566: The Potteries (and pottery safely away). Many of the promoters of the canal were pottery magnates. In the 19th century, the railways, too, came along the valley. The mainline Stoke-on-Trent railway station was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) on 9 October 1848, replacing the temporary station sited at Whieldon Road which was constructed for the opening of the first NSR line on 17 April 1848. Travellers to
319-466: The bounds of Stoke-upon-Trent include Boothen, Hartshill , Mount Pleasant, Penkhull and Trent Vale . Hanley, Staffordshire#Decline of name Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem , Longton , Fenton , Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent , amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire , England. The town is the main business, commercial and cultural hub of
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#1732802510428348-400: The city centre is regarded as being in nearby Hanley. On 1 April 1910, the town was federated into the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent . By 1925 the area was granted city status . Confusion can arise over the similarity of this town's name to that of the larger city. If the new borough had to be named after one of the original towns, the main reason for using "Stoke" is that this was where
377-476: The clock tower, entrance arch, fish section and shop frontage was saved. The current market in South Wolfe Street was opened in 1984. The former market site with its clock tower was block paved for use as an outdoor trading/event space, and a library and one-stop shop has also been added to the site. In the 19th century, Stoke had a thriving pottery industry, hence its nickname, "The Potteries". Since
406-462: The courts in around 1850. The outer bays in each of the two wings were slightly projected forward, enhanced with Ionic order pilasters on the first floor and pedimented as pavilions . Internally, the principal room was a market hall in the centre of the building, but the ground floor was remodelled in 1888 to convert the market hall into a public hall and to create a council chamber, a mayor's parlour and some municipal offices. Assembly rooms known as
435-532: The current station to be demolished to make room for further redevelopment of the town. Hanley no longer has a railway station but there was once one located on Trinity Street, on the Potteries Loop Line , which was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway for passengers on 13 July 1864. The station survived for 100 years – it was closed in 1964, as part of the Beeching Axe , and the land
464-421: The ground floor and ashlar stone above and was completed in 1834. The design originally involved a symmetrical main frontage with just three bays facing onto the Glebe Street; it featured a large portico with three archways on the ground floor beneath four Ionic order columns supporting an entablature and a pediment . It was extended with a north wing for use by the police in 1842 and a south wing for use by
493-493: The immediate north of the town hall in 1992. In 2012 the city council announced its intention to relocate some of its staff back to Hanley but into a newly built facility there. After a programme of refurbishment works costing £1.5 million was completed in 2018, the register office moved from Hanley Town Hall into the newly-refurbished building in October 2020. Stoke-upon-Trent Stoke-upon-Trent , also known as Stoke ,
522-559: The last half of the 20th century, however, almost all of the bottle-shaped kilns have been taken down, due to regulations from the Clean Air Act – an estimated 4,000 bottle kilns in the heyday of the pottery industry, today reduced to a mere 46. Successful Stoke-upon-Trent potters include Spode , Copeland , Minton and Biltons. Although Stoke is surpassed by its neighbouring town, Hanley in terms of size, population, and shops, it does have: Outlying townships or districts within
551-448: The new town's administration was sited, which in turn was because Stoke had the main transport links. The river, canal, mainline railway, and trunk road passed through the centre of Stoke. Stoke also had the main railway station (other towns were connected by the "loop" line) making the name of Stoke perhaps the most familiar outside the area. It made sense to name the city after the oldest and most commonly recognised name, even though it
580-404: The region would change trains at Stoke for local trains to their ticketed destination. The assembly hall, ballroom, exhibition hall and theatre built in 1910–11 at the time of the federation to the design of T. Wallis and J. A. Bowater, and with an impressive 19-bay dressed stone frontage on Kingsway behind the town hall. It has proved itself to be a useful adjunct to the town hall of 1834–50. This
609-514: The renamed town include Old Stoke and Stoke Town. There are also proposals to rename part of Hanley to Stoke-on-Trent City Centre. Stoke was located where the upper reaches of the Trent meets the Fowlea Brook . The later Roman road through Stoke remained the basis for local road transport long after the Roman occupation. The Anglian name given to this ancient place of meeting and worship
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#1732802510428638-475: The wider Potteries area. The name Hanley comes from either "haer lea", meaning "high meadow ", or "heah lea" meaning "rock meadow". Hanley was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1857 and became a county borough with the passage of the Local Government Act 1888 . It was based at Hanley Town Hall . In 1910, along with Burslem , Tunstall , Fenton , Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent it
667-402: Was federated into the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. Hanley was the only one of the six towns to be a county borough before the merger; its status was transferred to the enlarged borough. In 1925, following the granting of city status, it became one of the six towns that constitute the City of Stoke-on-Trent. At one time, there were many coal mines in North Staffordshire. Hanley Deep Pit
696-403: Was built on Glebe Street, opposite the parish church to the design of Henry Ward. The entire Town Hall–King's Hall complex serves the city of Stoke-on-Trent well as its chief administrative offices, including the lord mayor's parlour combined with all the facilities of the King's Hall for the city's formal entertainment. Stoke has held markets in various locations in the town since 1818. A market
725-419: Was established on the first floor. After significant industrial growth in the early 19th century, particularly associated with the potteries industry, civic leaders decided to procure a larger structure: the site selected was north east of the original structure in the heart of the potteries manufacturing area. The new building was designed by Henry Ward in the neoclassical style , built in rusticated stone on
754-408: Was not then the most significant town from a commercial perspective. (The commercial centre was Hanley, elevated and therefore relatively free, for most of the year, of the city's smog and smoke.) Owing to the confusion between the town of Stoke and the larger city, there have been various calls, mainly amongst business leaders and academics, to rename either the town or the larger city. Proposals for
783-442: Was opened in 1854. It was the deepest pit in the North Staffordshire coalfield, reaching a depth of 1500 feet. At its peak in the 1930s it employed some 2,000 men and boys often producing 9,000 long tons (9,100 tonnes) of coal a week. The pit was closed in 1962 but much of the headgear and spoilheaps were left in situ. Then, in the 1980s, the original site was cleared, landscaped and converted into Central Forest Park . Coal miners in
812-434: Was set up within the newly built town hall in the 1830s, but this did not prove popular with the market traders of the time and in 1845 the market moved to Hide Street (the building can still be seen today). In 1883 the market relocated to a larger purpose-built building fronting Church Street 'befitting its town status'. This Victorian market was all but destroyed by a fire that started on FA Cup final day (22 May 1982). Only
841-451: Was the 'stoc' (meeting place) on the Trent. It was the site of the first church in the area, built of wood around the year 670 by missionaries from Lindisfarne , later rebuilt in stone, and now known as Stoke Minster . A significant small town grew up around this church. In the 18th century, the "Grand Trunk" canal came along the Trent valley to carry china clay from Cornwall cheaply to
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