Barnsley Town Hall is the home of Barnsley Council. Only a few offices are now based here, along with meeting and reception rooms. This famous local landmark dates from 1933 and is a popular venue for weddings and civil partnerships. It has a cafe and the landscaped fountain areas outside make a great place to meet and relax.
The town hall is also home to the Experience Barnsley museum and the Barnsley archives. You can find out more about the town hall's past there.
The building is historic but has level access and Changing Places facilities. It's within a short distance of a range of parking in the town centre.
Flag flying
Our town hall is a UK government building. We follow the government guidance on when we should fly the Union Flag.
The building has three flag poles. The main flagpole is on the top of the clock tower. This is for flying the Union Flag or St George’s Cross only.
The other flag poles are on the top of the main building at either side of the tower. These are used to fly a flag for special events. These include Armed Forces Day or Yorkshire Day, when the Barnsley flag is also flown.
We also have our own special days for flying the flag. We’ll tell you about these on our social media channels.
Town hall tower and fountain lights
Lighting up our town hall is a great way to support national and local events and campaigns. It can mark a range of one-off events, such as sporting success and yearly events of teams and groups. We may also light it up as part of our broader events and campaigns.
We don't light it up in response to world events as an instant response. We'll look carefully at any requests for this, and these will depend on the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council being available and approving it. This isn't available to other groups.
The tower is usually lit up in white, with pink and blue lights that rotate in the arches. The lighting system can also change the town hall tower to other colours. The fountains are generally lit on a scheme that runs through all colours.
We can change the lights to the following colours:
- Rainbow
- Green
- Pink
- Purple
- Yellow (fountains only)
- Yellow and blue
- Red and green
- Red, white and blue
Request to light up the town hall
You can request to light up the town hall for up to one week, or for the duration of an event, whichever is shortest. The lighting period will begin and end only on those days when the town hall is open, as staff must be available to program the lighting. The lighting and fountains must also be in working order.
Eligibility
The event or campaign must aid local people and align with our values and outcomes in our Council Plan. It should also meet one of the following rules:
- Raise awareness of charities chosen by the mayor of Barnsley.
- Mark events directly organised, or financially supported, by us.
- Mark events not directly arranged by us, but which may be held in the borough. These must be useful to Barnsley from a tourism or promotional outlook (eg Tour de Yorkshire).
- Mark events from a charity, community or other non-profit making groups. These must be based in or have a link to Barnsley. They should also be celebrating an esteemed yearly event or occasion. To be considered a not-for-profit group, you must provide registered charity or not-for-profit details. You can get these from the government or the Charity Commission.
- Recognise sporting teams or groups with a specific connection to Barnsley which has received an important award.
Lighting won't be considered:
- For commercial bodies or personal occasions.
- To remember or honour a person - these would only be allowed as a special case.
- By people for their own purposes.
How to apply
You can request to light up the town hall and fountains by filling in our online form.
If there are two or more suitable requests for the same time, we'll take the first request. Our events and campaigns take precedence in all instances. Any yearly events must be applied for and assessed each year. There isn't any automatic renewals.
We reserve the right to remove or not proceed with any town hall lighting without prior notice. This also applies if the lighting or fountains aren't working.
