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.