The Guildhall is a Grade I listed building in Church Street, Harwich.

It is now the home of Harwich Town Council and was formerly home to the Borough Council – having originally been purchased in 1673 and undergoing a major upgrade in 1769.

Prior to 1673 the building was an inn called the Bear but it hadn't been so for long and prior to that the site was a house which probably underwent a complete rebuild between 1647 and 1653.

Today you can still see the fabric of the mid C17 property and subsequent phases culminating in the grand C19 Council Chamber.

Prior to 1603 there was a house on the site which was owned by Roger and Susan Cowper (Cooper) and it was occupied by the vicar, Hugh Branham. Roger Cowper was a noted Harwich mariner and when he died in 1603 he left the house to Susan for life and then to be divided between his children Thomas, William, Roger and Elizabeth.

Robert Russell, another Harwich mariner, acquired the house at some stage from Susan Cowper and sold it back to Thomas Cowper, the son of Roger Cowper, in 1623 for £100. Thomas Cowper had married Christian Barker in Harwich in 1611 before moving to Wapping.

Thomas Cowper died in 1624 and the house was inherited by Peter Cooper (Cowper) of Rotherhithe who then sold it to Anthony Myeris in 1647 for £50.

Anthony Myeris, a joiner from Harwich, bought the building in 1647 and sold it to John and Josian Lambert of Wapping. Around this time the house seems to have been completely rebuilt with a new softwood timber frame, probably on the existing cellars. At the same time as selling the house for £88 in 1653 to John Lambert, Anthony Myeris is also bound to him in the sum of £160.

John and Josian Lambert acquired the property in 1653, it passed to David Lambert and he then sold it to John and Christian Browne in 1665.

John and Christian Browne bought the building in 1665 and sold it to the Corporation of Harwich in 1673 for £200. This is first point at which the house is noted as being called “The Bear”.

This period represents the early days of the Town Hall. Before that time the mayor and burgesses met in various inns in the town – eventually purchasing one of them. The town gaol was probably located in part of the cellar – a heavy-duty door frame is still in place today and a piece of panelling now fixed to the floor carries French graffiti from early C18. The gaol was later moved to a rear extension and exposed panelling, discovered during refurbishment work in the 1970s carries more prisoner graffiti.

The building underwent a major upgrade in 1769, creating, broadly the building we see today. The building was re-fronted, extended to the rear and internally reapportioned to create the large council chamber on the first floor with Mayor's parlour and a sweeping staircase. The second floor now houses the town archive but was once accommodation – lately the caretaker's flat.

The Guildhall was surveyed and interpreted as part of the Harwich Architectural Survey Project which was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

An interpretation of the building by Brenda and Elphin Watkin is available for download here.