Newham_Town_Hall

Newham Town Hall

Newham Town Hall

Municipal building in London, England

Newham Town Hall, formerly East Ham Town Hall, is a municipal building in Barking Road, East Ham, London. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Newham London Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building.[1]

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History

Offices at Newham Dockside

In the early 20th century the East Ham Urban District Council held its meetings in the local school board offices in Wakefield Street.[2] Following a rapid growth in the local population,[3] civic leaders decided to procure purpose-built council offices: the site chosen for the new building was a plot of open land on the corner of Barking Road and High Street South.[4]

The foundation stone for the new building was laid in 1901.[5] It was designed by Henry Cheers and Joseph Smith in the Renaissance style, built by D.W. Barker and was officially opened by the philanthropist, John Passmore Edwards, on 5 February 1903.[6] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto Barking Road; the right hand section featured a 150 foot (46 m) high tower and a large archway to the extreme right inscribed with the words "Public Hall" above.[1][7] The tower contained a clock by Smith & Sons of Derby,[8] and an hour bell cast by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough, which weighed almost a ton (19cwt).[9] A long extension to the south of the main building was completed in 1910 and a three-storey annex was built to the east on Barking Road in 1939.[3] Internally, the principal rooms were the public hall, the council chamber and the mayor's parlour.[1]

Detail on the north face of the town hall

It was built to serve as the administrative headquarters of East Ham Urban District Council. The East Ham Urban District was given municipal borough status in 1904;[10] and county borough status in 1915.[11] The building continues to be the local seat of government after the formation of the London Borough of Newham in 1965, serving as its administrative headquarters.[12]

An additional building in Stratford, which was designed by the borough architect, Ken Lund, and Norman White in the shape of a ziggurat, was completed in May 1976; it was to have been joined by another, larger ziggurat, but after reductions in funding and criticism of the design the original ziggurat was demolished in February 1998.[13]

Most council officers and their departments were re-located to Newham Dockside (Building 1000 in Dockside Road) in 2010.[14] The building had been designed by Aukett Swanke and developed by Development Securities, Standard Life Investments and the London Development Agency as part of a scheme to regenerate the Royal Albert Dock; it had been built by Bowmer + Kirkland at a cost of £70 million and had been completed in June 2004.[15][16] After the developers had been unable to secure tenants, Newham Council acquired the building for £92 million and initiated a programme of fit-out works at a further cost of £19 million.[17] However, formal meetings of the council continue to take place in the town hall.[18]

References

  1. [1]
    Historic England. "Newham Council Offices (1190712)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  2. [2]
    Powell, W R (1973). "'East Ham: Local government and public services', in A History of the County of Essex". London: British History Online. pp. 18–24. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  3. [3]
    "London's Town Halls". Historic England. p. 156. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  4. [4]
    "Ordnance Survey Map". 1898. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  5. [5]
    "Let's hear it for East Ham - a town with a proud history". Newham Recorder. 10 April 2020. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  6. [6]
    "Restoration makes the Grade". The Newham Magazine. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  7. [7]
    "The Civic Plunge Revisited" (PDF). Twentieth Century Society. 24 March 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  8. [8]
    Mercer, Vaudrey (1977). The Life and Letters of Edward John Dent, Chronometer Maker, and Some Account of His Successors. London: The Antiquarian Horological Society. p. 528.
  9. [9]
    Deedes, Cecil; Walters, Henry Beauchamp (1909). The Church Bells of Essex Their Founders, Inscriptions, Traditions, and Uses. Aberdeen: W. Jolly & Sons. p. 142.
  10. [10]
    "The Incorporation of East Ham". The Times. 15 September 1904. p. 6.
  11. [11]
    "New London County Borough". The Times. 13 March 1914.
  12. [12]
    "Local Government Act 1963". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  13. [13]
    "The Ziggurat Building". Stratford Explorers. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  14. [14]
    "Newham Council 'may quit £111m office'". BBC. 23 September 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  15. [15]
    "Behemoth in steel and glass". Building. 25 June 2004. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  16. [16]
    "The Royals". BBC. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  17. [17]
    "Deprived Newham watches bemused as council ponders move from £110m building after just three years". The Independent. 24 September 2013. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  18. [18]
    "Discussions to take place on budget proposals; Newham Town Hall". London Borough of Newham. 18 February 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
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