Stoke Newington Town Hall
| Stoke Newington Town Hall | |
|
Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 The Assembly Hall section of Stoke Newington Town Hall | |
| Type: | Former town hall |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ32968648 |
| Location: | 51°33’41"N, 0°4’60"W |
| Town: | Stoke Newington |
| History | |
| Address: | Church Street |
| Built 1937 | |
| By: | John Reginald Truelove |
| Former town hall | |
| Renaissance (Municipal Offices) / Classical (Town Hall and Assembly Hall) | |
| Information | |
Stoke Newington Town Hall is a municipal building in Church Street, Stoke Newington, Middlesex, which served as the town hall for Stoke Newington for nearly thirty years, from the 1930s until the 1960s.
It is a Grade II listed building.[1]
History
The building was commissioned to replace an aging facility in Milton Grove.[2] The site chosen had previously been occupied by a 15th-century Manor House and later by a row of Georgian houses.[2]
The new building was designed by John Reginald Truelove and was completed in 1937.[1] It consisted of a curved section of municipal offices, which contains the council chamber, built in the Renaissance style to the west and a rectangular assembly hall with four huge Doric columns flanked by pavilions built in the Classical style to the east.[1] A sprung Canadian maple dance floor installed in the assembly hall allowing it to be used as a dance facility.[3]
Diring the Second World War, the building served as the local civil defence headquarters and was heavily camouflaged to protect it from enemy bombing during the Blitz.[4]
The town hall served as the headquarters of the 'Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington', but in 1965 that council was abolished and the town hall ceased to be the local seat of government, all functions passing to a giant Hackney Council. The council chamber was subsequently used as a storeroom and the assembly hall was closed, due to its state of disrepair in 1999.[3]
The building was extensively refurbished and restored to a design by Hawkins\Brown in 2010: the works included extensive repairs to the council chamber and the assembly hall was modernised.[5] The quality of the work was recognised by the Worshipful Company of Carpenters in that year's Wood Awards.[6][7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 National Heritage List 1253465: Stoke Newington Municipal Buildings and Surrounding Walls (Grade II listing)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 'London's Town Halls' (Historic England), page 83
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "A tour of Stoke Newington Town Hall". Londonist. https://londonist.com/2010/01/a_tour_of_stoke_newington_town_hall. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
- ↑ "Camouflaged buildings". Bowl of Chalk. 21 March 2013. http://www.bowlofchalk.net/things-are-afoot/category/camouflaged%20buildings. Retrieved 25 April 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.
- ↑ "Stoke Newington Town Hall". The Wood Awards. http://www.woodawards.com/stoke-newington-town-hall/. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
- ↑ "Stoke Newington Town Hall". Hawkins\Brown. https://www.hawkinsbrown.com/projects/stoke-newington-town-hall-and-assembly-hall. Retrieved 25 April 2020.