Welshpool and district
in Victorian times
  The Old Town Hall in Broad Street  
 

This old photograph is particularly interesting because it is a rare picture of the original Town Hall in Broad Street, Welshpool.
This building was completed in 1804 and was later enlarged in 1836. But even the enlarged building was thought to be too small, so it was replaced by the present Town Hall in 1873.
The date of this picture is not known, but it may have been taken in about 1865.

 
Old Town Hall
Broad Street
Welshpool
around 1865
Old Town Hall
The original market halls and buildings for official town business were often built in the middle of the main street - and even at the centre of the most important crossroads in the centre of the town !
The old Market Hall in Llanidloes is still there in the middle of town, but most were moved because they blocked the flow of traffic through the heart of town.
Many of the oldest maps of market towns show a building for a covered market right in the middle of the road !
 

The simple design of the hall was very similar to many others all over the country, with open archways at street level to provide a covered space for markets and other events. The large upper floor was used for town business and official meetings.
In the later years of the Victorian age many towns (and especially the rapidly growing industrial cities) chose large and elaborate Town Halls which were meant to improve the status of the town - and the people in charge of it !

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