Borough Hall, Bedford

For much of the 20th century the Shire Hall in Bedford was the local facility for dispensing justice and the meeting place of Bedfordshire County Council.^[1] After deciding the old shire hall was inadequate for their needs, county leaders chose to procure a new county headquarters: the site selected on the south bank of the River Great Ouse had previously been used as a recreation ground.^[2]

Construction of the new building, which was undertaken by Arthur Sanders Limited of Rushden, started in 1965.^[3] The new building was designed by the Deputy County Architect, Douglas Chalk,^[4] in the brutalist style and the design work was overseen by County Architect, John Barker.^[3] The design involved a reinforced concrete-framed structure with an asymmetrical main frontage facing Cauldwell Street which curved round on the left side down to the river; there was a canopied main entrance on the ground floor and there were exposed concrete beams above and below a continuous band of glazing on each of the six floors.^[5] Construction challenges with the reinforced concrete^[6] meant that the building was not completed until November 1969.^[7][8] It was officially opened as "County Hall" by the Duchess of Kent on 12 October 1970.^[9] Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the committee rooms.^[10]

Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, visited County Hall, before departing to open new facilities at Bedford Modern School, on 11 May 1976.^[11][12] After Bedfordshire County Council was abolished in April 2009,^[13] the building became known as "Borough Hall" and formed the headquarters of Bedford Borough Council.^[14]