Detail of a Spelter Lamp on the Palladian Style Stairwell of the Ballarat Town Hall - Sturt Street, Ballarat
The Ballarat Town Hall with its impressive clock tower is one of the provincial centre’s most impressive and distinctive buildings. This building, built in classical Second Empire style between 1870 and 1872 is in fact the third Town Hall on the current site on the corner of Armstrong Street and Sturt Street. The first wooden Town Hall was destroyed by fire in 1859, and the foundation stone for the second building was laid in August 1860. The original plans for the second Town Hall were deemed too expensive to complete, so work on the project ceased. Time passed, and the second building, as it was, was finally incorporated into the third structure.
Its interior is equally impressive, decorated in the same classical and elaborate style. It features grand council chambers with elaborate ceilings. However it is the stairwell which is the Ballarat Town Hall's most magnificent interiors. It is lit by an elaborate skylight, features a magnificent chandelier, has intricately tiled floors and has a set of palatial stairs decorated with spelter figures holding aloft lamps.
Second Empire was a Parisian style which was a revival of the style of Napoleons Second Empire. The style was often used for buildings of great cultural importance, and was often applied to town halls, theatres, grand hotels and public buildings. Often this style endows buildings with landmark qualities. Therefore it seems only appropriate that during the height of the Gold Rush boom of the 1870s the people of Ballarat had such a magnificent Town Hall bestowed upon them.
The Town Hall, designed by architects, J. J. Lorenz and H. R. Caselli (interiors), features classic trademark design features of the Second Empire style including: richly ornate Renaissance styled trimmings, including quoining and profuse ornament; towers and Palladian motifs; and a high Mansard style roof with cast iron cresting and rooftop dormer windows as part of the clock tower’s design. The Town Hall has a symmetrical facade, dominated by dome roofed clock tower, which has a peal of bells, and pedimented end towers with fan shaped windows.
Detail of a Spelter Lamp on the Palladian Style Stairwell of the Ballarat Town Hall - Sturt Street, Ballarat
The Ballarat Town Hall with its impressive clock tower is one of the provincial centre’s most impressive and distinctive buildings. This building, built in classical Second Empire style between 1870 and 1872 is in fact the third Town Hall on the current site on the corner of Armstrong Street and Sturt Street. The first wooden Town Hall was destroyed by fire in 1859, and the foundation stone for the second building was laid in August 1860. The original plans for the second Town Hall were deemed too expensive to complete, so work on the project ceased. Time passed, and the second building, as it was, was finally incorporated into the third structure.
Its interior is equally impressive, decorated in the same classical and elaborate style. It features grand council chambers with elaborate ceilings. However it is the stairwell which is the Ballarat Town Hall's most magnificent interiors. It is lit by an elaborate skylight, features a magnificent chandelier, has intricately tiled floors and has a set of palatial stairs decorated with spelter figures holding aloft lamps.
Second Empire was a Parisian style which was a revival of the style of Napoleons Second Empire. The style was often used for buildings of great cultural importance, and was often applied to town halls, theatres, grand hotels and public buildings. Often this style endows buildings with landmark qualities. Therefore it seems only appropriate that during the height of the Gold Rush boom of the 1870s the people of Ballarat had such a magnificent Town Hall bestowed upon them.
The Town Hall, designed by architects, J. J. Lorenz and H. R. Caselli (interiors), features classic trademark design features of the Second Empire style including: richly ornate Renaissance styled trimmings, including quoining and profuse ornament; towers and Palladian motifs; and a high Mansard style roof with cast iron cresting and rooftop dormer windows as part of the clock tower’s design. The Town Hall has a symmetrical facade, dominated by dome roofed clock tower, which has a peal of bells, and pedimented end towers with fan shaped windows.