Built in 1863 on the site of the Green Dragon [heraldic monster of
Wessex] Inn at the junction of Cornmarket and Gloucester Street, its exterior
has been described as "in a funny debased Gothic with a totally unmonumental,
asymmetrical front".
Up and to the right of the main door on a projecting
plinth, stands the town's only outdoor sculpture, a draped female figure.
Inside, a vestibule opens into the spacious hall with four tall pointed
arch windows, high on each side. At the far end, flanked by doors, [one giving
access to the Town Clerk's office], a dais below a board inscribed with the
names of local dignitaries; a plaque commemorates twinning with Le Mele ; the
more recent association with Falkenstein and ... remains unofficial. The
present scheme of paint and fabric is relieved for the upwards-looking by
foliated stone corbels beneath the main roof timbers and ten sculpted circular
reliefs [including a railway locomotive contemporary with the opening of the
Great Western Railway terminal, now a nursery, in Park Street]. The Mayor's
Parlour is upstairs from the vestibule.
© Gerald Taylor 2000.
Pevsner Berkshire p 141.