Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/270

258 feet broad, and 60 feet high, and was originally planned to give stall-room for 600 dealers. The liquor shop, house, and vaults beneath, at corner of Bell Street, were let on lease by auction (Nov. 1833) for 100 years, for the sum of £5,400 and a 20s, yearly rental, in 1876 the Corporation gave £15,000 to resume possession, afterwards reletting the premises at £800 a year, with a further £100 for the vaults. The Street Commissioners, when retiring from office, placed in the centre of the Hall a fountain of very appropriate design (uncovered Dec. 24, 1851), and ornamented with bronze figures characteristic of Birmingham manufactures, but which has been removed to Highgate Park. A clock was put above the spot where the fountain stood, in April, 1852, which cost £60.—A Market Hall was erected in Prospect Row in 1837, but was very little used as such. A few years back it was partly turned into a depôt for American meat, but is now simply used for warehouses.

Masonic Hall.—The first stone of this building, situated at the corner of New Street and Ethel Street, was laid Sept. 30, 1865, the ceremony of dedication taking place April 26th, 1870.

Municipal Buildings.—The advancement of the town in trade and prosperity, population, and wealth, made it necessary years ago for our local governors to look out for a central spot on which could be gathered the many offices and officers appertaining to the Corporation of a large town like Birmingham. They were fortunate in being able (in 1851) to secure so eligible a site, in such a central position, and with such commanding elevation, as the one at the corner of Ann Street and Congreve Street, though at first glance the acquisition would appear to have been a costly one. The price of the land and reversion thereto was £39,525, but (luring the years that elapsed before the ground was cleared ready for building (1872) the interest brought that sum up to nearly £70,000. The total area was 11,540 square yards, of which 4,455 square yards were thrown into the streets. Thus, though the original price was but 68s. 6d, per yard, by the time the buildings were erected the actual site cost over £9 per yard. The plans were approved Feb. 11, 1873, the contract for building being £84,120, but during the course of erection many important additions and alterations were ma le to the original plans, raising the cost to £144,743. Part of the ground was originally intended to be covered with Assize Courts, but have been devoted to the erection of a magnificent Art Gallery, &c., so that more than a quarter million sterling will ultimately have been spent on the spot. The foundation stone was laid by the then Mayor. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. June 17, 1874, and the erection took about five years, the "hoarding" being removed July 18, 1879. The design of the Municipal Buildings is essentially classical, but not of any particular style. Mr. Yeoville Thomasson, the architect, having given free rein to his own conceptions of what was required in a modern erection of the nature of a local Parliament House. The south, or principal front (to Ann Street), has a length of 296 feet, the frontage to Congreve Street is 122 feet, and that to Eden Place is 153 feet. From the ground to the top of the main cornice the height is 65 feet; the pediment over the central entrance is 90 feet high; the stone cornice of the dome 114 feet; and the top of the finial 162 feet, the dome rising behind the central pediment from the main staircase. Looked at from a distance, the features of the building that at first strike the spectator are the carved groups of life-sized figures in the six pediments. Te Ann Street and Congreve Street frontages have a pediment at each end, of semicircular shape, and the Eden Place frontage has one at the end where it joins the principal front. The pediment in the centre of the south front is triangular in shape, and contains a group of sculptured figures