Charlie Adlard, celebrated as the artist of the Walking Dead, has joined the campaign to save the county’s Shirehall – describing it as a “unique example” of modernist architecture in the town.
The former home of Shropshire Council is currently vacant after the local authority moved into alternative accommodation in Shrewsbury town centre earlier this year.
Campaign groups have previously accused the authority of the ‘long-term neglect’ of Shirehall as part of its efforts to save money, an accusation rejected by Shropshire Council.
The authority says the Shirehall building costs £1.3 million a year to run and the move to Guildhall in Shrewsbury will help the council to achieve an estimated savings target of around £600,000 a year.
Now, with the future of the site uncertain, a local campaign movement has sprung up to try and preserve the 1960s building, once described as the “major monument to post-war Modernism” in Shropshire by architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner.