Venue: Loughborough Town Hall
Town: Charnwood, GB

The Loughborough Town Hall is a building fronting onto the Market Place in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. Built as a corn exchange and ballroom in 1855, it later became a municipal building and subsequently a theatre. It is a Grade II listed building. The building is still used for full council meetings of Charnwood Borough Council. The origins of the building lie in the early 19th century, when four Loughborough tradesmen began a movement to provide the town with a public gathering place. It received much more momentum with the involvement of the local MP, Charles Packe of Prestwold Hall, who donated £500 towards the enterprise. With his backing, other local gentry got on board, and £8,012 was raised for the purchase of land and the construction of the building. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Charles Packe in October 1854: it was designed by the Northampton-born architect William Slater in the Italianate style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1855. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto the Market Place; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a round headed doorway with a fanlight flanked by two rounded headed sash windows separated by Doric order columns supporting an entablature and a balcony. On the first floor there were round headed sash windows separated by Ionic order columns supporting an entablature and a cornice and, at roof level, there was a two-stage decorative bellcote. The outer sections on both floors were also fenestrated by round headed sash windows. The clock, which hangs from the main frontage of the building, was designed and manufactured (by G. & F. Cope of Nottingham) in 1879 and installed in 1880. The bell, which was cast by John Taylor & Co, based in Loughborough, was also installed at that time. Both were given by Edward Basil Farnham. The primary uses in its earliest days were as a ground floor corn exchange hall, where loc