Old Town Hall, Ellesmere
Old Town Hall, Ellesmere is a historic building on High Street in Ellesmere, Shropshire, England. It was built in 1833 from ashlar stone and designed by Edward Haycock in the neoclassical style. The town gifted it to Ellesmere, with support from the Countess of Bridgewater.
The ground floor was arcaded so markets could be held, and the first floor housed an assembly room. The front has three bays facing High Street, with three round-headed doors on the ground floor, three sash windows upstairs, and a pediment with a clock.
In 1878 the assembly room was refurbished. When markets moved to a new market hall on Scotland Street in 1879, the arcading was filled with glass and a free reading room opened on the ground floor in 1884.
An Iron Age canoe found near Colemere in 1864 was displayed in a local history museum inside the reading room in the late 19th century.
In 1894 Ellesmere grew, and the town hall became the headquarters of Ellesmere Urban District Council. Cinema screenings began in the reading room from 1931.
The building remained a government HQ for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government after the North Shropshire Rural District Council was formed in 1967. A new community hall on Willow Street opened on 25 March 1968, opened by Viscount Bridgeman, and became the new Ellesmere Town Hall.
The old town hall was sold and used for various purposes: it briefly housed a restaurant, then offices for an estate agent. A pub opened in the basement in June 2017.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:37 (CET).