Poplar Town Hall
| Poplar Town Hall | |
|
Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 The new Poplar Town Hall | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ37468291 |
| Location: | 51°31’42"N, 0°1’11"W |
| Town: | Poplar |
| History | |
| Address: | Bow Road |
| Built 1938 | |
| By: | Culpin and Son |
| 1930s Modernist | |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Converted to hotel |
Poplar Town Hall is a municipal building at the corner of Bow Road and Fairfield Road in Poplar, Middlesex. It is an early example of the Modernist style, and replaced an earlier building, now known as Old Poplar Town Hall, in 1930.
The Town Hall is a Grade II listed building.[1]
History
The Town Hall was commissioned in 1938 to replace an aging mid-19th century municipal building on Poplar High Street. The Old Town Hall, which had a distinctive octagonal tower and dome and mosaic detail,[2] had become the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in 1900.[2][3] It was the Victorian building which had been the scene of the Poplar Rates Rebellion, led by George Lansbury, which resulted in 19 councillors' being sent to prison.[4] The council sold the old town hall to a developer in 2011 and it was subsequently converted into a hotel.[4]
In the 1930s, the old town hall was proving inadequate and so a replacement was commissioned, which was to be built on the site of a 19th century vestry hall.[2] The new building was designed by Culpin and Son in the Moderist style and built in the form of a trapezoid; it was completed in December 1938.[1] The Builders, by sculptor David Evans, is a frieze on the face of the building, unveiled by Lansbury on 10 December 1938: the Portland Stone panels commemorate the trades constructing the Town Hall and symbolise the borough's relationship with the River Thames and the youth of Poplar. It was proclaimed by the council to be the first town hall to be erected in the modernist style.[2]
In 1965 Poplar's council was abolished in favour of a giant 'Tower Hamlets' council, and the town hall ceased to function as the local seat of government.
After being used as workspace by the council until the mid-1980s, the town hall was sold in the 1990s to a developer who added a roof extension and converted it for commercial use.[5] It was subsequently used as a business centre.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 National Heritage List 1393151: Former Polar Town Hall (Bow House) (Grade II listing)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 'London's Town Halls' (Historic England), page 180
- ↑ National Heritage List 1260135: Old Poplar Town Hall and Council Offices
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Brooke, Mike (22 January 2014). "Fury at Tower Hamlets over knock-down sale of old Poplar Town Hall". East London Advertiser. https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/politics/fury-at-tower-hamlets-over-knock-down-sale-of-old-poplar-town-hall-1-3229395. Retrieved 15 May 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.
