The building that's been almost everything

Here's the Guildhall fact that puts Exeter's civic life into perspective. There has been a hall on this exact site since at least the 12th century, and records suggest a guild was meeting here as early as 1000 AD. On that basis, Exeter's Guildhall has a genuine claim to being the oldest municipal building in Britain still in continuous use.

What I like most is everything it's been asked to do along the way. Over the centuries the same building has served as a prison, a courthouse, a police station, a woollen market hall and a city archive store, on top of its ongoing job as the seat of civic life, council meetings and celebrations, all inside timbers that have been standing since medieval Exeter.

I painted the Guildhall in watercolour and ink with its ornate facade and impressive stonework. There's a poster with a letter home and a postcard if you'd like one.

Shop the poster here: The Guildhall, Exeter · Travel Poster