Description:
Demolished December 1894.
The government of both the French and English boroughs of Nottingham, was carried out in the English borough. When the merchants of the town were permitted to have a Gild to regulate trade they erected a Gild Hall on Weekday Cross: this building became the Court House and Town Hall when the borough had its own mayor and aldermen. By the 18th century the town's growing prosperity meant that the market place in the old French borough increased in importance and corporation had a greater administrative workload: consequently, in 1722 the corporation decided to build a new town hall in the market place. This building became known as the Exchange and was used for a variety of social and ceremonial purposes. The old town hall on Weekday Cross, however, continued to be used alongside the Exchange and was refaced with brick in 1744. The growth in municipal business in the 1870s underlined the inadequacy of the old town hall so a new guildhall was opened in Burton Street and the old town hall was abandoned by the corporation in 1877. The Great Central Railway bought the site in 1894 for £70 and demolished the building the following year to make way for the railway line from Victoria Station which emerged from a tunnel at Weekday Cross. (information from www.nottshistory.org.uk)