The first guildhall in Northampton was a 12th-century building at the junction of Gold Street and Horsemarket. The second guildhall was an early 14th-century
battlemented structure at the corner of Abington Street and Wood Hill; it was sold in 1864 and subsequently demolished. The current building, the third guildhall, designed by
Edward William Godwin in the
Gothic Revival style, was officially opened on 17 May 1864. The original part of the building was symmetrical with three first-floor windows either side of the main entrance, above which rose a clock tower with a steeply pitched roof. along with a hemispherical bell to strike the hours. The building was extended to the west to the designs of A W Jeffrey and Matthew Holding in 1892, creating a frontage of 14 bays with arcading on the ground floor and windows above on the first floor. A statue by
Sir Francis Chantrey of
Spencer Perceval,
Member of Parliament for Northampton and the only
British Prime Minister to have been assassinated, was originally unveiled in 1817 and is also on display inside. A plaque on the eastern extension marks the fact that
Diana, Princess of Wales, was made a
Freeman of the Borough of Northampton in 1989, marking her and her family's strong connections with the town and with
Althorp where she was brought up and is buried. The plaque below the memorial reads: "The memorial above was unveiled by the
9th Earl Spencer in memory of his sister, 7 November 2002 in the presence of the
Mayor of Northampton, Michael Geoffrey Boss". A series of bronze statues of Northampton's "history makers", cast by the sculptor Richard Austin, were unveiled in July 2017 within the courtyard of the 1992 extension. ==See also==