The Market Hall, now Dover Museum, in June 2001.
The Market Hall stands in one corner
of the Market Square,
on a site once occupied by the town gaol. The gaol
closed in 1834, when a new prison was built at the
Maison Dieu. The site
was auctioned in September 1837, when it was purchased
by the Corporation Market Committee for £555. It was
planed to build a new market but on further consideration
the Corporation could see no way of financing the
project.
The project was revived at the Annual
Meeting of the Borough Council in 1846. In April 1846
the designs for the new Market Hall with Museum above
were unveiled. The estimated cost of the building
was £3000 but when the tenders came in they were all
above the architect’s estimate and the design had
to be revised. The use of Caen stone for the building
and some of the ornamental work was abandoned. This
reduced the lowest tender to £3448, and that, with
the £555 paid for the site was the cost of the building.
The Museum, which was placed in the
upper part of the new building in 1848, had been established
in the old Guildhall
in 1836. The nucleus of the new Museum consisted of
the collection of Mr Edward Pett Thompson, a former
Mayor of Dover. The exhibits were greatly increased
and varied after the removal to the new building.
During World
War Two the Market Hall was badly damaged. On
21 October 1940 the Market Hall and the Museum above
it were seriously damaged when a bomb hit the rear
of the building. The building was further damaged
by another bomb on 23 March 1942 and by shelling on
4 October 1943. After the war the building was restored
and the market re-opened but the Museum moved to new
premises in the basement of the Town
Hall.
The Market Hall finally closed in
November 1973, when the stall holders moved to a temporary
accommodation in Biggin Street. It was intended to
refurbish the Market Hall as part of a new development
in the Market Square.
Unfortunately the re-development scheme did not come
to fruition, and the Market Hall remained empty and
dilapidated, a victim to the attacks of vandals.
The Market Hall remained empty and
uncared for until the late 1980s when it was redeveloped
as part of the White
Cliffs Experience Heritage Centre. The main part
of the building was demolished but the façade was
incorporated into the new building. The Market Hall
part of the development is now home to Dover
Museum, which moved to its new home on its old
site in 1991.
The new museum, with galleries over
three floors, is a great improvement on the cramped
quarters it used to occupy in the basement of the
Old Town Hall. It is
now an excellent showcase for Dover’s rich and varied
history, including the Bronze
Age Boat, which went on display in it’s own purpose
built gallery in 1999. The permanent galleries are
complimented by a programme of temporary exhibitions,
showcasing items from the Museum’s reserve collection,
particular aspects of local history and the work of
local artists.
