Reputedly England’s smallest town, nestling in the shadows of the Chiltern Hills, Watlington offers a traditional market town welcome.

With origins dating back to the 6th century, the proximity of the Icknield Way, civil war connections, and mention in the Domesday Book, Watlington is certainly steeped in history. The fine 17th Century Town Hall is accompanied by many 16th century and Georgian buildings, as well as the venerable church of St Leonard’s. Watlington exhibits the specialist shops, pubs, small businesses, and great hospitality, which make it the very epitome of a small English Market town.

In 1664–65 Watlington Town Hall was built at the expense of Thomas Stonor. Its upper room was endowed by Stonor as a grammar school for boys, and in 1731 Dame Alice Tipping of Ewelme gave a further endowment to increase the number of pupils. In 1842 the town Vestry established a National School, which shared the same rooms in the town hall.

The words ‘God Save The King 1769 are embellished on the side of Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall.

The Hall was built in the reign of Charles I and throughout its chequered history has seen calamitous events including being extensively damaged from a gunpowder explosion in 1643.  Just over a century later the Hall was actually pulled down but re-built the following year.

In 1863 major alterations resulted in a Hall very much as you see it today.  Ill fate dogged it again in 1946 when fire, started from a cigarette, completely gutted the beautifully proportioned Ballroom, when a valuable painting by Gainsborough of David Garrick was destroyed.

We arrived at breakfast to find that most items were in short supply, causing us to hurry through breakfast rather than tarry a while.

We walked to Durham Town square to see various features including the History time line that is featured on the pathway across the square. We ventured into the market to see its architectural features before visiting the Town Hall where I knew there was a hidden gem behind the unimposing frontage, the Medieval Guild Hall built in 1665.

Sadly the church of St Nicholas was shut. This seemed to be an emerging theme with churches in Durham so we decided not to venture further to St Oswalds’ church which was also on our morning ‘to visit’ list.

Instead we drove to Shildon to visit the National Railway Museum. We arrived to find it shut on Mondays and Tuesdays…

Plan B came into operation, a visit to the Bowes Museum. We arrived just in time for lunch so we joined the queue for the tearoom. When we were seated we realised why there was a long queue, the system they operate is not very organised. The food, when it arrived, was delicious. The French chateau styled building and the collections within are a delight. I enjoyed the galleries of paintings, in particular those showing biblical scenes and figures.

Despite the earlier chaos in the tearoom, we decided that afternoon tea and cake was in order before heading back to the hotel. The queue was shorter and the tearoom less full but the service was just as chaotic as it had been at lunch. We shared a delicious slice of chocolate and orange cake.

Later we dined in Restaurant 17 followed by our now customary night cap in the Swan before retiring to our hotel.

Ljubljana Town Hall (Slovene: Ljubljanska mestna hiša, also known as Ljubljanski rotovž or simply Rotovž or Magistrat) is the town hall in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is the seat of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located at Town Square in the city centre close to Ljubljana Cathedral.

The original building was built in a Gothic style in 1484, probably according to plans by the Carniolan builder Peter Bezlaj.[1] Between 1717 and 1719,[2] the building underwent a Baroque renovation with a Venetian inspiration by the builder Gregor Maček, Sr.,[3] who built based on plans by the Italian architect Carlo Martinuzzi and on his own plans (the gable front, the loggia, and the three-part staircase).[4] In the mid-1920s, a monument to the Serbian and first Yugoslav king Peter I was erected in the entrance of Town Hall. The monument, designed by the architect Jože Plečnik, was removed and destroyed by the Fascist Italian occupation authorities of the Province of Ljubljana in April 1941.

Brussels Town Hall is one of the Belgium’s finest civic buildings. Not only because of the numerous sculptures adorning its walls, but also because of its perfect proportions and the incomparable beauty of its tower, the spire of which is topped by the archangel Saint Michael, Brussels laid the foundation stone of the magnificent Gothic edifice in the spring of 1402. In 1695, when the city was bombarded by Marshal de Villeroy, the Town Hall was destroyed by fire.

Atop the spire on the square tower body, stands a 5-meter-high gilt metal statue of the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Brussels, slaying a dragon or devil. The 96 meter high tower is in Brabantine Gothic style.

The facade of the town hall is decorated with numerous statues representing nobles, saints, and allegorical figures. The present figures are not the originals. The Grand Place was bombed in 1695 by the French. The damaged townhall had to be reconstructed.

The inside of the Staduis provides as much interest as the outside. Here are some of the many interesting rooms within.

The Gothic Hall

This is the room where Leuven town council meets, even after the relocation of all the municipal services and the councillors’ offices to newer premises.

The beam blocks on the market side are 15th century old, gothic and were carved by the Brussels sculptor William Ards. They illustrate the life of Maria and Christ, the example of clemency and justice. The foyer underneath the gothic hall features scenes from the Old Testament: so that the New Testament has been literally built on top of the Old. A number of cornerstones between the beams are perhaps the work of Joes Beyaert; animals symbolise good and evil, symbols of the evangelists, prophets and church fathers etc.*

The Mayor’s Office

In the beginning this is where the ‘Saint Peter’s Lords of the Seven Noble Families’ used to meet. Until a few years ago this served as the mayor’s office. It is decorated in and 18th century style.*

The Attic

The attic is reached by way of  a spiral staircase. When you arrive at the top of the stairs you are greeted with a stunning view of roof beams of oak and rows of original sculptures from the building stadhuis facade.

The sculptures you see today on the richly ornate facade are not the originals! In 1828-1841, during restoration work, around 200 weather-damaged sculpted bases of the niches of the ‘front house’ and other 15th century sculptures in Avesnes stone were replaced by new sculptures in a different kind of stone. The original pieces ended up in the attic. But it turned out that the new pieces were not so weather resistant, so they were replaced again. Some of the sculptures from the 19th and 20th century are here because they have since been replaced.*

It was fascinating to be able to see close up, both the original and 19th century sculptures.

*From the Tourism leaflet -The Town Hall; The Pride and Joy of Leuven

]]> http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2015/07/28/within-the-stadhuis-leuven/feed/ 8 http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2015/07/27/stadhuis-leuven/ http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2015/07/27/stadhuis-leuven/#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2015 22:06:02 +0000 CherryPie http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/?p=15942

Built between 1439 and 1463 from the profits of the cloth trade, Leuven’s Stadhuis was designed to demonstrate the wealth of the city’s merchants. This tall and distinctive building is renowned for its lavishly carved and decorated facade. A line of narrow windows rises up over three floors beneath a steeply pitched roof adorned with dormer windows and pencil-thin turrets. *

However, it is in the exquisite quality of its stonework that the building excels, with delicately carved tracery and detailed medieval figures beneath 300 niche bases. There are grotesques of every description as well as representations of folktales and biblical stories, all of which are carved in an exuberant style. Within the niche alcoves are 19th-century statues depicting local dignitaries and politicians. *

*From Eyewitness Travel Guide to Belgium and Luxembourg

The present day Town Hall in Mechelan is situated on the Grote Markt:

It consists of two parts: the cloth hall with unfinished belfry and the Palace of the Great Council. Why wasn’t the belfry ever finished? The cloth trade went into decline in the fourteenth century and there wasn’t the money to complete the building. For two hundred years the belfry was no more than a shell, until it was eventually provided with a temporary roof in the sixteenth century. Temporary? That roof is still there.

The belfry is now a UNESCO world heritage site. On the right of the belfry you can see the oldest part of the town hall, the remains of the earlier cloth hall. On the left is the Palace of the Great Council. The Great Council? It never actually met here, because this wing was only completed in the twentieth century in accordance with the original sixteenth-century plans of the then leading architect Rombout Keldermans.