Guildhall

Venue Type & Location

Guildhall

Site Name: Guildhall
Location: Lincoln
County: Lincolnshire
Location Type: Town - in town at determined location

Performance Spaces

Overview

Located at the S end of the High Street, the stone Guildhall still occupies the upper storey of the Stonebow, the principal gate into the city via the old Roman route of Ermine Street.

Performance History

Too bad but there's no real evidence surviving from civic accounts.

All entries are Dean & Chapter, so we can't be sure of the performance venue. The old Deanery is referred to and pictured in Kendrick's Cathedral Church of Lincoln (1898; SMC Library) but it's demolished and inconclusive anyway. So, unfortunately, omit Lincoln.

Current Status

Still used by the Mayor and civic administration. Open to the public at stated times.

History of the Venue

13th c. First Guildhall erected on the site.

late 14th c. Stonebow demolished as unsafe.

late 15th c. Rebuilding began.

1520 Stonebow completed.

1761 Original perpendicular window tracery of the Guildhall partly destroyed during an election riot.

1833 The bank building to the W of the Guildhall was rebuilt and its frontage moved back by 12'.

1842 Prison wing on Saltergate pulled down and rebuilt. Evidence of the Tudor kitchen destroyed.

1885--90 Restoration by the architect J.L. Pearson. 2 side arches were opened for pedestrians and a new W window added in the extra space allowed by the earlier rebuilding of the bank.

Record Source

REED Lincolnshire

Bibliographic Sources

  • Allen, Thomas. The History of the County of Lincoln, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. London & Lincoln: John Saunders, Junior, 1834.
  • Hill, Francis. Medieval Lincoln. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1965.
  • Hill, J.W.F. Tudor & Stuart Lincoln. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1956.
  • Mills, D. R. and R. C. Wheeler. Historic town plans of Lincoln, 1610–1920 . Lincoln Record Society 92 . Woodbridge: The Boydell Press , 2004.
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus, and John Harris. Lincolnshire. 1964. The Buildings of England. London: Penguin Books, 1998.
  • Platts, Graham. Land and People in Medieval Lincolnshire. History of Lincolnshire IV. Lincoln: History of Lincolnshire Committee, 1985.
  • Stewart, J.O.R. and J.J. Cooke. The Stonebow & Guildhall: A guide to this historic building in the heart of the City of Lincoln. Lincoln : J.W. Ruddock & Sons Ltd., 1990.
  • Stocker, David. St Mary's Guildhall, Lincoln.:The Survey and Excavation of a Medieval Building Complex . The Archaeology of Lincoln, vol 12-1. London : Council for British Archaeology for City of Lincoln Archaeology Unit, 1991.
  • Tittler, Robert. Architecture and Power: The Town Hall and the English Urban Community c. 1500–1640. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1991.
  • Turner, Thomas Hudson, and John Henry Parker. Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England, from Richard II. to Henry VIII. 3 vols (vol 3 in 2 pts). Oxford: John Henry and James Parker, 1851–9.