History
Hanley Town Hall in Albion Square , Hanley, is a grade 2 listed building designed by Robert Scrivner. The cost of building totalled £20,000 and it was officially opened in 1869 as the queens hotel.
By the 1880s the company running the hotel ran into financial difficulties and the building was bought by the Borough Council in 1884. After a redesign by the borough surveyor of the time, Joseph Lobley it was reopened as Hanley Town Hall complete with council chambers, municipal offices and court rooms in 1886.
For most of the 20th century the building was used by Stoke on Trent council as a court house and registry office > Crown court hearings eventually moved to the new court center in 1991 and the registry office moved to Stoke on Trent town hall in 2020. The building has been on the market ever since for the pocket change price of £500.000
( apologies for the quality of that , was having camera issues , for a better image, go here > ww1-yorkshires.org.uk/html-files/hankey-stoke-on-trent.htm , a bit more info there too )
Stoke on Trent (Hanley) war memorial stands in front of the town hall and there is a roll of honor located inside the entrance hall on a huge plaque . A recent statement on Stole on Trent live states that the council have no current plans tp move the roll of honor and idealy it should remain in place when the building is sold.
The Explore
We kind of stumbled upon this lovely building as we were walking around after a pretty much dead day in the Stoke area. Most places in the area were either sealed up tight or not worth the effort of climbing in. We were alerted to this buildings abandonment by the presence of a homeless couple living in a tent on the doorstep. Thinking it was a good way to make a statement, campng on the town hall dorstep, we went over to investigate. As you get closer to the building , the signs are there, a couple of broken windows, poor upkeep of the plants etc. It wasnt long before a window just (and i mean just) big enough to get through presented itself and we found ourselves in the cellar wandering what had just happened . I never thought id be exploring a town hall .
I have to say, this place is something else, the court rooms are amazing and theres some epic paint peelage in the hallways on the upper levels. Nosing through some of the bits and bobs left around in here (and theres a lot of bits and bobs) we came across a photo album which was being used as a log for food hygene complaints , the pics in there have made me think twice about ever eating out in the Stoke area. (I wont post any of that here tho, people might be eating lol ) After a good few hours we left the way we came in and was greeted by 2 police officers who seemed more shocked at how wed fitted through the window than anything else. After the obligatory pat down to make sure we wasnt copper thieves or anything we were on our way. If the homeless couple and their son happen to be reading this, i hope the council have finally pulled their finger out of there arses and helped you out.
On with some pics. This is quite pic heavy and i could have posted a ton more . Hope you enjoy.
A few corridor shots..
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A couple from the roof.
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Some bits from around the building
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And heres a few from the two court rooms.
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And one more for good luck.
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I hope that was to your liking. Nice one for looking :-)
