This Grade I Listed Building (the highest) was designed in 1744 in the Palladian style by James Paine at an estimated cost of £4,523. 4s. 6d. However, taking into account internal furnishing the costs rise closer to £8000.00, including furnishings.

The foundation stone was laid in 1745 and Paine was engaged in February 1746 shortly after producing his (new) designs.

Originally built for entertaining the gentry, it later became the Council Chamber during WW1, where the Aldermen and common councillors of the Doncaster Corporation conducted their business. It was later used by the elected councillors of the Doncaster Council and finally the DMBC before moving to the purpose-built council building in Gresley Square..  Today it is used for weddings, afternoon teas, open days and events.

The Mansion House was commissioned by the Doncaster Corporation principally as a place of municipal entertaining and for holding private assemblies. Assemblies were to become very popular during the Georgian period combining general socialising with dancing, drinking (both tea and alcohol), and card games. Light refreshments would usually be provided.

The Corporation already had a Town Hall, which they continued to use for the Corporation business, so the money they spent on a new Mansion House is a testament to their ambition and wealth.

The sums involved are also a reflection of the quality of work that went into the building – not only through the designs of James Paine but also through the work of distinguished craftsmen such as the master plasterers Thomas Perritt and Joseph Rose. The façade of the building was taken by Paine from a design by which Inigo Jones produced for the Palace of Whitehall.

 

The Mansion House was incredibly successful as a social venue and was soon regularly used for winter assemblies and for the Leger Week in September. For more information about the Mansion House as a Social Venue, click here.

Opposite the Mansion House, is the Nat West Bank, originally the Westminster Bank. The building work took four years to complete and the new bank was opened on 30 April 1928. In 1968, the National Provincial and the Westminster bank merged to form the National Westminster Bank.

The architect was Walter Brierley of York who designed the York City & County Bank of 1897. He was referred to as the Lutyens of the North. His design was exhibited at the Royal Academy where it was regarded as reaching the high water mark of bank design.

The handsome classical elevation accords well with the Mansion House which it reflects in its round-headed windows, carved heads and festoons of fruit and flowers. However, the chief glory · of the building is its magnificent banking hall which is a double cube, 90' x 45' x 45\ and which was considered by Inigo Jones, the great Renaissance architect to be an ideal proportion. Unfortunately, Brierley never saw the finished effect, he· died in 1926.

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On High Street, before the Mansion House, are a number of significant buildings, the former Woolwich Building Society, now a Megabet Betting shop.

The Subscription Rooms, of which only the portico with its ionic columns, survives today.

And the red brick building next to the Mansion House, number 44 is dated from the Mid 18th century and is now the Subway Restaurant.

When you arrive, click the next button at the foot of the page to find out more about this interesting building.