The handsome town hall on Market Place, built in 1734 by John and William Bastard as part of the post-fire rebuilding of the town. It is a dignified two-storey brick building with a stone portico and open ground floor arcade — the classic form of an English market hall. The Bastard brothers designed it for civic use while also establishing their own architectural practice on the same street; the building is one of the best-preserved examples of their work and a focal point of the Georgian market place.
story: > The Bastard brothers who rebuilt Blandford Forum after the 1731 fire were not obscure outsiders — they were local men, born in the town. John and William Bastard ran a successful building and design practice from Blandford for decades and their work here was praised even in their own time. A stone tablet in the town, placed by the brothers themselves, reads: "In Grateful Remembrance of the Divine Mercy, that Rais'd this Town, like the PHOENIX from its Ashes... this Monument of His Bounty was erected." Their names have caused sniggers ever since, but the buildings speak for themselves.