News from Peterborough City Council

A city businessman who donated a piece of history to the Town Hall will unveil a new plaque to recognise his generous gift to the city at the Town Hall, Bridge Street, Peterborough on Wednesday 3 December 2008 at 10.30 am.

 

Local entrepreneur Rinaldo Fasulo presented the historic clock, which had been a Peterborough city centre landmark for almost 140 years, to Peterborough City Council in 2005. Mr Fasulo became the owner of the clock, which was previously on the front of the old Central Library building on Broadway, Peterborough, when he bought the building and turned it into a nightclub in 2005.

 

Following restoration, it was installed close to its original location on the front of the Town Hall. A plaque marking his donation can now be seen next to the clock, which Mr Fasulo inherited as a fixture on the former central library building when he purchased it in 1990.

 

The clock is an important timepiece, and was the first in Peterborough to tell 'Railway Time', meaning the time it kept was synchronised across the country.

 

It was commissioned by Mr Whately Paviour, a jeweller in Narrow Bridge Street - now the site of the Town Hall - in 1868. Mr Paviour awarded the clock to the City in 1902. When the street was widened in 1929, the clock was moved to the Carnegie Library. When the library was sold to Mr Fasulo in 1990, the clockwork mechanism was removed and an electric motor was used to drive the hands. The mechanism has resided at the city's museum ever since.

 

Leader of Peterborough City Council, Councillor John Peach, said: "Peterborough City Council is pleased to unveil a plaque recognising Mr Fasulo's donation of the former Central Library clock to the Town Hall. The clock has an interesting history but it started life in Bridge Street and I am delighted it has become a celebrated part of the Town Hall since Mr Fasulo's kind gesture."

 

Mr Fasulo added: "This is a proud moment for me and I would like to thank the council for honouring my donation on the plaque. I wanted the clock to reside at the Town Hall from the moment I acquired it. The clock has its origins on Bridge Street and it is only fitting that this is where it should be enjoyed from."

 

 

1. The clock was originally erected above a jeweller's shop in what was Narrow Bridge Street in May 1868.

2. The clock was built by jeweller and clock-maker Henry Barron-Clarke, who was mayor of Boston, Lincolnshire, in 1905. 

3. The 'skeletonised turret' clock is designed to be driven by a clockwork mechanism inside a building with the clock face mounted on the exterior. It included a small chimney and lighting hatch so that it could be illuminated by a gas flame, although it was never connected to a gas supply.

4.  The clock was moved to the old central library building as part of road-widening scheme in 1929, prior to the construction of the Town Hall.

5. After Peterborough City Council's new Central Library was opened the old library building was turned into a nightclub but the clock, now powered by an electric motor, remained on the front of the building while the mechanism was stored at Peterborough Museum.