Camden Town Hall
| Camden Town Hall | |
|
Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 Entrance to Camden Town Hall in Judd Street | |
| Type: | Town hall |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ30138279 |
| Location: | 51°31’44"N, 0°7’32"W |
| Town: | St Pancras |
| History | |
| Address: | Euston Road |
| Built 1937 | |
| By: | Albert Thomas |
| Town hall | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Camden Council |
Camden Town Hall stands on Euston Road in St Pancras, an inner urban district of Middlesex. It was built in 1937 to serve as a town hall for the Borough of St Pancras and was known as St Pancras Town Hall until 1965. Today it is the headquarters of Camden Council. The main entrance for the town hall is in Judd street, with its northern elevation extending along Euston Road, opposite the main front of St Pancras railway station.
The town hall is a Grade II listed building.[1]
History
An earlier town hall stood on St Pancras Way, built in the 19th century as a vestry hall for the Parish of St Pancras; this parish was later replaced by the Borough of St Pancras, which still met at the vestry hall.[2][3]
In the early 20th century, the borough council found that the vestry offices were inadequate for their needs, so they elected to construct a purpose-built facility: the site selected on Euston Road had previously been occupied by some Georgian terraced housing.[4]
The new building was designed by Albert Thomas, who also designed housing schemes for the council, in the neoclassical style.[2] The construction which was undertaken by Dove Brothers of Islington involved a steel frame clad with Portland stone and the work started in 1934.[2] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with 13 bays facing onto Judd Street; the central section of three bays featured three doorways on the ground floor; there were three windows on each of the first and second floors flanked by huge Corinthian order columns supporting a pediment.[1] A carving of the borough coat of arms was erected above the central window on the first floor. The design for the Euston Road frontage involved 23 bays with two sections designed in a similar style to the Judd Street elevation i.e. with windows flanked by huge Corinthian order columns supporting pediments.[1] Internally, the principal rooms were an assembly hall on the ground floor in the east of the building and the council chamber and mayor's parlour on the first floor in the west of the building.[2] The building was officially opened in October 1937.[2][5]
The building served as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras and continued to operate as the local seat of government after the formation of the London Borough of Camden in 1965.[1] An eight-storey extension designed by the borough architect's department was built to the east of the main building in 1977,[2] in a modern architectural style and clad in white pre-cast panels with curved window corners.[6][7] A rooftop conservatory was added in the 1990s.[8]
In February 2020 the council started a vastly expensive programme of refurbishment works,[9][10] to involve restoration of the historic areas used by the council and the redevelopment of the basement and upper floors so those floors can be let out as commercial space.[11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 National Heritage List 1379162: Camden Town Hall (Grade II listing)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "London's Town Halls". Historic England. p. 28. http://research.historicengland.org.uk/redirect.aspx?id=7096%7CLONDON%27S%20TOWN%20HALLS. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
- ↑ Walford, Edward: 'St Pancras', in Old and New London Volume 5 (1878) pages 324-340
- ↑ "Camden mulls tower at town hall site". Property Week. 7 November 2008. https://www.propertyweek.com/news/camden-mulls-tower-at-town-hall-site/3126773.article. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
- ↑ "Lavish Town Hall". The Goulburn Evening Penny Post. 8 October 1937. p. 3. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/9561364. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
- ↑ "The Civic Plunge Revisited". Twentieth Century Society. 24 March 2012. https://www.c20society.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2012-2403-CivicPlungeRevisitedlowres2.pdf. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
- ↑ "Conservation Area Statement: Kings Cross". Camden Council. https://www.camden.gov.uk/documents/20142/7870389/KING%27S+CROSS+CONSERVATION+AREA+STATEMENT+JUNE+2004.pdf/779e839b-9b0f-08ee-f2cd-03ece4857bc8. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
- ↑ "Council defends controversial plan to renovate Camden's historic town hall". My London. 6 September 2019. https://www.mylondon.news/news/north-london-news/council-defends-controversial-plan-renovate-16879059. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
- ↑ "'Much-needed spruce up': Camden Town Hall refurbishment costs rise to £63m". Ham and High. 27 January 2020. https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/politics/camden-town-hall-refurbishment-cost-rises-by-more-than-20m-to-63m-1-6485771. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
- ↑ "Lendlease set for green light on Camden Town Hall makeover". Building. 17 September 2019. https://www.building.co.uk/news/lendlease-set-for-green-light-on-camden-town-hall-makeover/5101643.article. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
- ↑ "Public exhibition". Camden Council. https://www.camden.gov.uk/documents/20142/0/CamdenTownHall.Boards.Final.18.09.19.pdf/c2da9e75-1c0c-f702-e230-3b59dad2ecb4. Retrieved 5 April 2020.