Haringey_Civic_Centre

Haringey Civic Centre

Haringey Civic Centre

Municipal building in London, England

Haringey Civic Centre is a municipal building in High Road, Wood Green, London. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Haringey London Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.[1]

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History

The building was commissioned by the Municipal Borough of Wood Green to replace the ageing Wood Green Town Hall in High Road.[2] After the old town hall had become inadequate for the council's needs, civic leaders decided to build a new town hall: the site selected for the new building, which was further south on High Road, had previously been occupied by some 19th residential properties known as the Fishmongers' and Poulterers' Almshouses.[3][4]

Construction work on the building, which was undertaken by Gee, Walker & Slater, started in 1956.[2] The new building was designed by Sir John Brown, A E Henson and Partners and was officially opened by the local member of parliament, Joyce Butler, as Wood Green Civic Centre on 15 March 1958.[5][6] The design, which was influenced by Aarhus City Hall and Søllerød Town Hall, both in Denmark, envisaged a public area in the southern part of the building and workspace for council officers and their departments in the northern part of the building.[1] It involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing onto High Road; the southern section featured a large projecting glass frontage with a doorway on the ground floor while the northern section of the frontage comprised nine bays with windows on each of the ground, first and second floors.[1] Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber behind the glass frontage on the first floor and the mayor's parlour in the west wing of the building.[1] The council chamber was designed with an unusual suspended ceiling which sloped down to the back of dais on which the mayor sat.[7]

An underground nuclear fall-out shelter was established in the basement but a public hall, which had been intended for the site, was never built.[8] The building continued to be the local seat of government, as Haringey Civic Centre, when the enlarged London Borough of Haringey was formed in 1965.[9] A Citizens Advice Bureau was established in the building in 1975;[10] although now known as Citizens Advice Haringey, it continues to operate from the centre.[11] Many of the council officers and their departments moved to River Park House further south on High Road in 2005.[12]

In 2017 the civic centre, much of which is now unused, was the subject of a consultation on regeneration options including possible replacement, but after English Heritage listed the building in July 2018, the regeneration options became more restricted.[13] English Heritage praised its "Scandinavian influence, transparency and modernity."[13]

References

  1. [1]
    Historic England. "Haringey Civic Centre (1454719)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  2. [2]
    "London's Town Halls". Historic England. p. 97. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  3. [3]
    "Haringey Civic Centre: What was there before?". Hornsey Historical Society. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  4. [4]
    "Haringey Civic Centre". Modernism in Metroland. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  5. [5]
    "The Changing Years: The History and Development of Wood Green". London Screen Archives. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  6. [6]
    "Haringey Civic Centre 1958". Harringay Online. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  7. [7]
    "Haringey Civic Centre reopens its doors to film crews". Filmfixer. 20 December 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  8. [8]
    "The Civic Plunge Revisited" (PDF). Twentieth Century Society. 24 March 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  9. [9]
    "Local Government Act 1963". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  10. [10]
    "Our history". Citizens Advice Haringey. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  11. [11]
    "Haringey Advice Day 2020". Citizens Advice Haringey. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  12. [12]
    "Before River Park House: Wood Green's Carnegie Library". Horsey Historical Society. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  13. [13]
    "Haringey Civic Centre listing raises new regeneration questions". BD Online. 10 August 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
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