When the Corporation purchased the hall and gardens they were surrounded by a high wall and could not be seen from Sankey Street.
Fortunately in 1893, Mr Frederick Monks, a member of the council, saw some magnificent gates on one of his many visits to Ironbridge as a director of the Monks Hall Foundry. These he offered as a gift to the council and after being formally opened on Walking Day on 28 June 1895, they have graced the Sankey Street frontage to the town hall ever since.
The gates, which were originally exhibited by the Coalbrookdale Company at the International Exhibition in London in 1862, are said to be amongst the finest in England.
From illustrations of the gates in publications at the time of the 1862 Exhibition, it would appear that there were some differences from the gates as they exist today.
Originally the centre archway of the gates was surmounted by large Prince of Wales feathers, a wreath and the motto 'ICH DIEN', and there were no movable gates under this archway. Today the Prince of Wales feathers, etc, have been replaced by the arms used by the borough from 1847 to 1897.
The gates have an extreme width of 16.459 metres, and measure 7.620 metres to the top of the central arch.
When they were placed in their present position it was decided to put down, on either side of them, a stone base 610mm high, surmounted with an ornamental iron railing 1.219 metres high.
Mr Monks at this time also gave a smaller pair of gates, to be placed at the corner of Crosfield Street and Sankey Street. These gates and railings as well as the movable gates which now fill the central arch were also made at the Coalbrookdale Foundry.
There are several stories told concerning the reason for the Prince of Wales feathers on the original gates and what happened to the gates between them being at the 1862 Exhibition and their erection at Warrington in 1895.
The most likely however, seems to be that although they were specifically produced for the 1862 Exhibition, they had been commissioned by one of the livery companies of London as a gift to Queen Victoria to be used at Sandringham, a property purchased in 1862 for the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII).
It was however the custom at the time, that prior to the acceptance of such a gift, the Queen should be able to inspect the object offered. The gates were therefore erected in Rotten Row, but unfortunately the statue of Oliver Cromwell (now sited at Bridgefoot) modelled by the same artist who designed the figures on the top of the gates, was placed behind them, and it is understood that this caused Her Majesty displeasure to the extent that she refused the gates.
They were then returned to Coalbrookdale where they lay from 1863 to 1893, when they were seen by Mr F Monks.
The records of the Coalbrookdale Company indicate that the gates, which are made of cast-iron, were designed by a Mr Kershaw in conjunction with their very able manager Mr Crook, and that the four filials representing the goddess of victory, Nike, were the work of John Bell.
In 1899 a fine ornamental fountain was presented to the town by Sir Peter Walker and family, and erected immediately behind the gates, but this along with the railings around Bank Park were sacrificed to provide much needed iron, to help the war effort in 1942.