Gifts for all the family - Viva Lewes

COUNTY HALL
“You should see the sunset,” says one of the County
Council employees on the open-plan sixth floor of
the North Block of County Hall. “On a good day
it’s amazing. The whole place turns pink.” I’m being
taken round Lewes’ largest building by the ESCC
communications officer, Martin Fitzgerald, and I’ve
asked specifically to be shown the office with the
best view. And it’s quite something. It’s 3pm, and
the low sun is casting rich light and long shadows.
On one side you can see right into the courtyard of
Lewes prison, and beyond Juggs Hill. On the other
there’s an unspoilt vista over the castle keep and the
higgledy-piggledy rooftops of the town centre. You
can see straight down the Ouse Valley, too.
Sadly, it’s the view of, rather than from, County Hall
that most people have to deal with every day. Has
there been a more unpopular building in Lewes
since the Normans built the castle to assert their
power over the Saxons? A recent conservation area
appraisal puts it rather succinctly. ‘It is accepted
that the County Hall building… is an unattractive,
visually dominant building of no architectural merit
whose demolition would be welcomed by most
Lewes residents’.
So why was it built? In 1964 council workers were
spread around 13 different buildings all over Lewes,
and a single central base was desperately needed.
County Architect Mr J Catchpole was given a million
pound budget and four years to work out an
answer. Working from an on-site prefabricated
building, he came up with a fashionable, functional,
boxy design, and oversaw an army of builders turn
that design into reality.
I’ve long been itching to get into the mindset of the
people who commissioned and designed County
Hall, so I was recently thrilled to get hold of the
W W W. V i V a L E W E s . C o M
b R i C k s a n d M o R t a R
quarterly ESCC newsletter that came out soon after
the building was opened, by the Duchess of Kent,
on 31st of October 1968. “In order to preserve the
attractive silhouette of the town and its ancient
castle when viewed from the south,” it reads, “the
County Hall has been designed in the form of three
large blocks of varying heights…” It also tells how
a careful choice of brickwork helps it to ‘harmonise
with other buildings on the skyline, particularly the
nearby church of St Anne.’ Oh, and it mentions
those panoramic views, of course.
It’s almost exactly forty years since County Hall
was opened, and there has recently been a spate of
articles in the local papers about the Tory Council’s
desire to move out of the building, and into a new
centre in Polegate. Any such plans, of course, are
unlikely to be followed through within the next ten
years, but there has been quite a heated debate as to
the pros and cons of such a move being made. Some
can’t wait to see the back of the building and would
welcome any development in its place.
A sizeable number of people, however, are taking
the opposite view, worried about the potential economic
impact of losing County Hall, and its 1,200
workers, and the loss of prestige Lewes would suffer.
My gut feeling puts me firmly in the latter camp.
As we wander through the corridors of local power,
I ask Martin if anyone has ever tried to give County
Hall a listed status. He looks at me quizzically, to
see if I’m joking. I am. The truth is, if it were any
other building, I might now be making a politically
expedient volte-face in my critical appraisal of the
aesthetic qualities of the place. But it’s County Hall,
and no rose coloured glasses are strong enough for
that, however nice the views are.
Alex Leith
V
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