The Guildhall Arts Centre St Peter's Hill

Image: © Jo and Steve Turner Taken: 2 May 2011

Guildhall and jail Grade II Listed built 1867-9 and designed by Lincoln architect William Watkins commissioned in 1866 by Mayor Thomas Winter after criminal Jesse Dale twice walked out of the town’s original jail in 1864. On the site was an old school, The Firs, housed in a former town house. This and the adjoining land were bought for £2,100.00. At the height of World War I, the jail in the Guildhall was resurrected and the first female officer to have full powers of arrest, Edith Smith, joined the Grantham force and was based there. As late as 1930, publican Frank Milner of the Victoria Hotel, Commercial Road, was let off with a caution for serving out of hours because he set his time by the clock which was, and still is, a little slow. In 1972, a dome replaced the original wrought ironwork over the clock tower and in 1974, the magistrates moved to the London Road. Much of the building was redundant until 1991 when it was redesigned by Sleaford architect Tim Benton and re-opened as the council owned Guildhall Arts Centre at a cost of £1.2 million. In 2010 a refurbishment, saw the box office move to the front of the building and the Victorian entrance being used once more, a new coffee shop was housed in the jail where the kitchen area is still referred to as ‘the back cell’.

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