The Old Town Hall, Faringdon, Oxfordshire

Shortlisted for our new Best Loved Award in the public category, the Old Town Hall has been painstakingly cared for by its community for a century.  

Standing in the Market Place, Faringdon's Old Town Hall serves an important role in the centre of the town, as the War Memorial and a focal point for the weekly markets, community groups and local festivals. Constructed after the Civil War, it is a 17th-century building with an open market space underneath a chamber. It is built in a charmingly modest style, with stone pillars supporting massive oak beams under a stone-tiled roof. The Old Town Hall is owned by the council which clearly looks after this building for the town with pride.  

After the First World War, the building had become very run down and it was under threat of demolition. A letter from May Morris, William Morris’s daughter, in March 1919, was instrumental in saving the building. Work to the Old Town Hall in the 1920s was overseen by the SPAB architect, William Weir. Since then, the building has been lovingly kept in good condition with numerous careful repairs and improvements and is conscientiously looked after daily by the Leisure Services team under instruction from the Town Council. 

The two most recent works to the building in 2021 included: repairs to timber framing; patch repairs to stone slate roof; improvements to rainwater goods; patch repairs to lime roughcast render; provision of a new lift; new heaters; and re-decoration including applying pigmented limewash to external walls. The roof and tiles were found to be in fair condition, with only a small number of tiles needing to be replaced. 

The judges were impressed by the quality of the repairs and materials and the commitment of the town in its approach of ‘a little and often’ in the regular, often-modest care of the building.  

Sally Thurston, Town Clerk writes: “Faringdon loves its Old Town Hall... Great care has been taken to use the correct materials and construction methods during recent repairs and renovations to ensure the continuing survival of this building for generations to come.”  

Works by Imperial Restoration overseen by Andrew Townsend Architects. Work was funded by Faringdon Town Council, Faringdon War Memorial Trust, S106 monies, Community Infrastructure Levy and FCC Communities Foundation.