The Town Hall (8)
The Town Hall on the right was built in 1900 with Dutch gables and the Extension on its left in 1930. The Fire and Ambulance Station and a public mortuary were at the back until 1962. Inside the entrance hall there are 1919 telegrams from King George V praising the 161 men from Chapel Street which he called ‘the bravest street in England’ and who volunteered in the 1914-18 War (a national record). There is also a citation to Private W Speakman VC who is President of the Altrincham & Bowdon Civic Society. They, the Court Leet and Altrincham History Society meet in the Council Chamber where there are two large elaborate chairs in the Jacobean style carved from a Dunham oak tree and presented to the Court Leet in 1875 by Edward Neild of Bowdon when he was Mayor of Altrincham. Neild was a partner in a furniture-making firm originally established by John Starkey in 1790 in the town. There are also chairs which were used by the council members which are in oak and dated 1901. The whole building was refurbished in 2005/6. In front of the 1930 Town Hall Extension of is a bronze of a fishmonger by local sculptor Colin Spoforth erected in 2008.
St. Margaret’s Church Institute was to its south. It was built in 1896, used as a Town Hall Annexe since the 1960s and demolished in 2005. The stone palings in front possibly came from a farm in Greenwood Street, demolished to build the Altrincham Working Men's Conservative Club in 1882.
Market Street at this point used to be called Windy Harbour and was the route from Old Market Place to George Street via Shaw’s Road on the left. Originally Shaw’s Road was called Shaw’s Lane or Shay Lane and before that Barnum’s Lane. The original Unitarian Chapel existed down here on the right from 1816 to 1872 and was one of the main burial grounds in Altrincham. The first permanent theatre in Altrincham was called The Central (1907 to 1933) was in front of the church at what was number 17, the junction of Central Way. It was built on the site of the burial ground and a house in Shaw’s Road had gravestones paving its back yard before the last war. The Central also showed films from its opening and seated 200. By 1914 it had become a full-time cinema, often known as the Bug Hut or the Flea Pit. The proprietors of The Central organised outings for children and the 1909 trip to Mobberley was filmed and has been preserved in the North-West Film Archives. Afterwards the building became a snooker hall and finally a postal sorting depot.