Shoreditch Town Hall
| Shoreditch Town Hall | |
|
Middlesex | |
|---|---|
 Shoreditch Town Hall | |
| Type: | Town hall |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TQ33348265 |
| Location: | 51°31’37"N, 0°4’45"W |
| History | |
| Built 1866, 1902 | |
| By: | Caesar Augustus Long, W C Hunt |
| Town hall | |
| Municipal classical | |
| Information | |
| Website: | shoreditchtownhall.com |
Shoreditch Town Hall stands on Old Street in Shoreditch in Middlesex, a short distance due north of the City of London. It was first built in 1866 as a vestry hall for the Parish of St Leonard Shoreditch, then from 1899 served as the town hall for the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, until that borough's abolition in 1965. Today the Town Hall is still used as municipal purposes. It is a Grade II listed building.[1]
The 1866 vestry hall at the heart of Shoreditch Town Hall was described at the time as the 'grandest in London'. It was designed by Caesar Augustus Long, a local architect about whom little is known.
In 1899, the parish authority was abolished and the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch was created, which took up residence in the hall. The hall was substantially enlarged in 1902 and 1938. The initial work, carried out be W C Hunt, incorporated Long's vestry hall to create the monumental Shoreditch Town Hall seen today.
Style
The building may be characterised as being in the 'municipal classical' style of the Victorian age, its classical frontage of Portland stone facing Old Street. The 1866 vestry hall provides the eastern five bays of the building and the council chamber at its heart. Hunt added in a matching style a further three bays to the west, linked by a bay set-back somewhat, and a tower, hence the asymmetric frontage. He also added a new public hall on the first floor, but in 1904 this hall was gutted by fire and completely rebuilt by A W Cross.
A rear wing was added to the south in 1936 to 1938.
There is detailed decoration throughout, integrated into the architecture. The first floor is arcaded with wreaths and palm fronds, elaborate keystones and Corinthian engaged columns. There is a rusticated ground floor and stone balustraded area. The eastern part of the hall has open pediment terminated by paterae with recessed niches with urns on plinths and cambered window with keystone and cast iron balcony
The building is embellished with symbolic statuary alluding to the borough motto: "More Light, More Power".
The borough motto commemorates the provision of electric power to the borough from the Vestry of St Leonard Shoreditch Electric Light Station[2] later known as the Shoreditch Borough Refuse Destructor and Generating Station[3] on Coronet Street. This building is embellished with the motto E PULVERE LUX ET VIS ("Out of the dust, light and power"). It was built in 1896 and burned rubbish, to provide steam for the electricity generator. The waste heat was used to heat the public baths next door (and now demolished).
The hall today
The hall lost its original purpose on the abolition of the Borough of Shoreditch in 1965. It was used by, for example, the new council's housing department, but it fell into increasing disuse and in 1998 Shoreditch Town Hall was leased to a charitable trust, which carried out a £3.5 m restoration. The trust now runs it as a self-sustaining community business, and the building is now home to the National Centre for Circus Arts.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Shoreditch Town Hall) |
References
- ↑ National Heritage List 1235232: Shoreditch Town Hall
- ↑ R. Crosley, London's coats of arms and the stories they tell (Robert Scott, London, 1928)
- ↑ Cherry, B. and Pevsner (1998) The Buildings of England: London 4: North: 520. London, Penguin