Oxford Town Hall — Attraction in Oxford

Oxford's guildhall was created by substantially repairing or rebuilding a house on the current site in about 1292. It was replaced by a new building, designed by Isaac Ware in the Italianate style in 1752. In 1891, an architectural design competition was held for a new building on the same site. The local architect Henry Hare won with a Jacobethan design. The 1752 building was demolished in 1893. Hare's new building included new premises for Oxford's Crown and County Courts, central public library and police station as well as the city council. The Prince of Wales opened the new building in May 1897, about a month before the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.

University of Oxford undergraduates were expected to mount a large demonstration for the opening, so a detachment of the Metropolitan Police Mounted Branch was deployed to reinforce the small Oxford City Police force. The Metropolitan officers were unused to Oxford undergraduates, and considered the boisterous crowd a danger. The officers attacked the crowd with batons, causing several serious injuries. The crowd reciprocated, unhorsing one officer and trampling him. A young law don, FE Smith, who had taken no part in the violence, saw police mishandling his college servant. Smith went to rescue his servant but was arrested. He became the first prisoner in one of the cells of the new police station in the new Town Hall. Smith was charged with obstructing police officers in the execution of their duty, but at his trial the young lawyer was found not guilty.

The police station was at the rear in Blue Boar Street. It was completed later than the rest of the building, but the Oxford City Police force was able to move there from its former station in Kemp Hall by the turn of the century. The City Council was accused of greatly exceeding the budget it set for the building project. In 1905 Henry Taunt published a leaflet in which he stated that the building was meant to cost £47,000 but ended up costing £100,000.

In the First World War the building was converted into the Town Hall section of the 3rd Southern General Hospital. From 1916 it specialised in treating soldiers suffering from malaria.

Oxford City Police moved to a new police station further down St Aldate's in 1936 and the central public library moved to new facilities at Westgate Centre in Queen Street which were completed in 1972.

The town hall was the headquarters of the county borough for much of the 20th century and remained the seat of government after Oxford City Council was...

We attended a wedding event recently here and the venue was fantastic. The problem for us was one member of staff (blonde lady with glasses) who was extremely rude to multiple guests throughout the night. She was hosting the bar for the event and was separate from the catering there. Near the latter half of the event, she refused (very rudely) to give glasses (or even plastic cups) for our water and the guests had to resort to drinking from the large glass water bottle directly. Not only this, but her attitude overall stank and was very unprofessional. Multiple guests throughout the night passed comments to us regarding this particular member of staff and it was very clear that she had negatively affected the wedding day experience. Apart from this the venue was great, however this member of staff really did dampen...

Reviewed in the context of visiting for a concert the Oxford Town Hall is a good venue. The high vaulted ceilings allowed the Orchestra’s music to reverberate nice round the hall. The Hall itself is a lovely old building full of big spaces. Seating wasn’t too packed in, so it didn’t feel too busy, maybe 500 people in total. The bar was a little understaffed at the interval which put some people off buying drinks. Overall easy to find, easy to get to and a no fuss venue. Just remember Oxford isn’t car friendly so get the train or park at the Westgate shopping centre. Both a 5...