Crossing over the High Street in Poole, and looking down New Orchard, you can see The Guildhall.

Didn't have time to pop down for a proper look though (as didn't really go around the Old Town, just the harbour).

The Guildhall was built in 1761 and largely paid by Poole's two MPs, who each contributed £750. The ground floor is now enclosed, but originally was open at one end and used as a market, whilst the upper floor housed Corporation offices and council chamber. Since then it has also served as a magistrates court, the Court of Admiralty, a temporary parish church, a wartime canteen for American servicemen, a classroom for Poole College, and as Poole's museum. Today it houses the town's Registration Services for births, deaths and marriages and is much used for weddings.

Grade II* listed building

<a href="http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-412555-the-guildhall-" rel="noreferrer nofollow">The Guildhall, Poole</a>

   POOLE

   SZ0190NW MARKET STREET
   958-1/16/115 (North East side)
   14/06/54 The Guildhall

   GV II*

   Formerly known as: Old Guildhall MARKET PLACE.
   Guildhall, with partly open market on ground floor. Dated
   1761. For John Gultson and Col. Thomas Calcraft, MPs for
   Poole, their names inscribed on tablets on the returns;
   restored 1994. Brick with limestone and stucco dressings and a
   hipped slate roof with flat leaded top and cupola. Mid
   Georgian style. Rectangular plan.
   2 storeys and attic; 7-window range. 3-window front has
   rusticated quoins, plat band and flat cornice, with a pediment
   raised at the corners to form side parapets. A projecting
   Tuscan portico with front balustrade, antae and pediment,
   above a rusticated base with a blocked, keyed round arch, with
   fine curved steps and iron railings rising each side to the
   portico; first-floor keyed segmental-arched windows with
   6/6-pane sashes, a clock in the pediment with a keyed
   architrave, and a sundial with a gnomon and number XII at the
   apex of the pediment. The sides have a formerly open
   ground-floor arcade connected by impost blocks, and
   first-floor keyed windows as the front.
   Rear Orchard Street elevation has 2 windows and 2 arches.
   Domed ridge cupola with concave corners, wide modillion eaves
   cornice and round-arched windows with rusticated architraves.
   INTERIOR: the Guildhall includes a first-floor council chamber
   with a rear platform and doorway with architrave and console
   pediment, beneath a coat of arms of Queen Victoria, a central
   right-hand fireplace, masked externally by a blind window,
   with enriched surround and an overmantel with broken pediment
   over an eared panel containing pre-1603 Royal Arms. Ceiling
   divided by moulded bands, central lantern and enriched coved
   cornice. The ground floor has cast-iron columns along the
   centre.
   A very fine example of a Georgian guildhall (manifesting the
   C18 wealth of Poole), after which the Custom House (qv) was
   modelled, and elegantly closing off the important view up
   Market Street. The ground-floor formerly contained an open
   market.
   (RCHME: County of Dorset (South East): London: 1970-: 202;
   Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Newman J: Dorset: London:
   1972-: 219).

   Listing NGR: SZ0095690487

This text is a legacy record and has not been updated since the building was originally listed. Details of the building may have changed in the intervening time. You should not rely on this listing as an accurate description of the building.