The Golden Gates

I took my car in for a service this morning and then had three hours to wait before the work was finished. I went on a bit of a tour of Warrington town centre.

The golden gates are one of Warrington's must sees. Through them can be glimpsed the Town Hall. It was built as Bank Hall in 1752 for wealthy local businessman Thomas Patten, who owned the busy nearby copper works at Bank Quay. The architect was James Gibbs, who also designed St Martin in the Fields on Trafalgar Square and the Radcliffe Library in Oxford. He won't have been cheap.

The Gates were featured at an international exhibition in 1862, and were intended by their makers, the Coalbrookdale Iron Company, to be located at the entrance to Sandringham House in Norfolk. However, Queen Victoria's advisors were horrified to see that a statue of Oliver Cromwell featured on the same trade stand, and so - as she would not have been at all amused -  steered her well clear. Thirty years later the owner of a local iron foundry, also a councillor, bought them from Coalbrookdale to stand in front of the Town Hall. An impressive statue of Oliver also stands in the town, in front of the Warrington Guardian offices.