Old Town Hall, Richmond
| The Old Town Hall | |
|
Surrey | |
|---|---|
 Old Town Hall, Richmond | |
| Type: | Former town hall |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ17767468 |
| Location: | 51°27’32"N, 0°18’23"W |
| Town: | Richmond |
| History | |
| Address: | Whittaker Avenue |
| Built 1893 | |
| By: | W J Ancell |
| Former town hall | |
| Elizabethan Renaissance | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Richmond upon Thames Council |
The Old Town Hall stands on Whittaker Avenue in Richmond in Surrey. It is a municipal building which from 1893 to 1965 was the town hall for Richmond.
History
The site chosen for the building was occupied by the Castle Hotel in Richmond, which was purchased by Sir John Whittaker Ellis, the local Member of Parliament, and donated by him in 1888 to Richmond's vestry (which performed local government functions until the Municipal Borough of Richmond was created in 1890).[1][2] The clock, which juts out from the main frontage of the building, was installed by the Leeds firm William Potts & Sons Ltd.[2] The new building was designed by W J Ancell in Elizabethan Renaissance style and opened by the Duke of York (later to become King George V) in 1893.[2]
The hall was severely damaged by a fire-bomb on 29 November 1940 but, after restoration, was reopened by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1952.[1]
In 1965, a group of neighbouring boroughs (Richmond, Twickenham and Barnes) were combined to form one named ‘Richmond upon Thames’, and to accommodate the new, larger bureaucracy the Town Hall was abandoned in favour of York House in Twickenham, which thus became the seat of government for the new council.[1]
In 1988, the Old Town Hall was refurbished as part of scheme to redevelop the riverside area.[3]
Although some of the building's ground floor has been leased to the retail sector, the former town hall was retained for municipal use and now contains the borough's reference library, its local studies collection, the Museum of Richmond, an art gallery (the Riverside Gallery) and meeting rooms.[4]
See also
Outside links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "The Old Town Hall, Richmond". Open House London. https://openhouselondon.open-city.org.uk/listings/1381. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "The Old Town Hall, Richmond". Richmond upon Thames Council. https://www.richmond.gov.uk/media/6319/local_history_old_town_hall.pdf. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
- ↑ 'London's Town Halls' (Historic England), page 165
- ↑ "Riverside Gallery". London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. https://www.richmond.gov.uk/services/arts/riverside_gallery. Retrieved 11 April 2020.