Doncaster Mansion House history and layout

Information about the history and the layout of Doncaster's Mansion House.

Doncaster's elegant Mansion House, a focus for civic pride, has dominated the High Street for over two hundred and fifty years. The Grade 1 listed Mansion House was built between 1745-9.

It is one of only four surviving civic Mansion Houses in the country.

the first was built by the corporation of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1691, but was demolished in the redevelopment of the town centre in the mid-nineteenth century
York began its own mansion house in 1725
followed by London in 1739 and finally by Bristol in 1783
the Bristol mansion house was built solely as a home for the mayor and the mansion houses of London and York provided accommodation for the mayor as one of their functions.

Doncaster Mansion House, however, was designed as a place for corporate entertaining and, although there were several rooms to provide living accommodation, the house was never intended as a residence for the mayor in his year of office, although a few mayors made use of the rooms for this purpose.

Want to visit the Mansion House?

For information about open days, function hire and getting to the Mansion House, see our visit the Mansion House page.

Tour of the building in downloads:

Take a tour of the Doncaster Mansion House in the following document and look into some aspects of its history:

The Whole Mansion House Tour: Download (281KB)

You can also follow the tour in sequence, moving room by room through the ground floor and then through the first floor using the individual documents below:

A House for the Corporation: Download (46KB)

James Paine The Architect: Download (28KB)

The Mansion House and the High Street: Download (23KB)

Mansion House or Palace: Download (65KB)

The Mansion House Exterior: Download (17KB)

The Vestibule and Staircase: Download (19KB)

The Plan of the Ground Floor: Download (39KB)

The Front Committee Room: Download (17KB)

The Rear Committee Room: Download (20KB)

The Civic Parlour: Download (21KB)

The Great Kitchen: Download (17KB)

The Plan of the First Floor: Download (27KB)

The Mayoress: Download (42KB)

The Salon: Download (20KB)

The Gallery and the Peace Window: Download (18KB)

The Ballroom: Download (19KB)

The Council Chamber: Download (23KB)

The documents use specially-commissioned photographs of the Mansion House, old engravings, and plates from the book which its architect published in 1751 to advertise his achievement. This book is James Paine's Plans, Elevations, Sections and other Ornaments of the Mansion House belonging to the Corporation of Doncaster. A copy of the book can be seen at Doncaster Archives and at the Local History Library in the Doncaster Central Library.

For further information on the history of this historic building, please contact Doncaster Archives using the below details: