Camden Town Hall

Camden Town Hall is a town hall built between 1934 and 1937, designed by architect AJ Thomas. The building is clad in Portland stone ashlar over a steel frame on all four fronts.

The exterior comprises three main storeys with a channelled base and plinth. Keystones over the entrances were carved by WCH King. The Judd Street front features wings of five windows width, each with a central aedicule and windows with an alternating rhythm of channelled and unchannelled surrounds on the first floor. A projecting centre section rises over the entrances, five windows in width, with a giant Corinthian order consisting of outer pilasters and inner attached columns rising to a full pediment embedded in a raised attic with pitched roof.

The Euston Road front is twenty-three windows wide, with wings of five windows width matching the Judd Street side. The centre is modelled on the Place de la Concorde, featuring projecting pedimented pavilions matching the centre of the Judd Street front, positioned over subsidiary entrances and flanking seven bays with giant Corinthian columns. A raised attic with pitched roof spans the whole centre.

The Tonbridge Street front is twenty-three windows wide with a slightly recessed centre and a raised attic of thirteen windows width with pitched roof. The east front includes a single-storey ground-floor projection with side entrances on the flanks, three round-arched windows on the first floor in the centre rising through the second storey, and a raised central attic of three windows width with pitched roof.

The Judd Street entrance features a black and white marble floor and deep-beamed ceiling. The main balustraded top-lit staircase is of white marble with dark marble pilasters and variegated marble panels on the walls. It branches to lead to the Members' Lobby on the first floor, which contains polished marble Corinthian columns and variegated marble panels. First-floor corridors are panelled throughout to impost level and plaster-vaulted in the manner of London County Hall in Lambeth.

The Council Chamber occupies the centre of the building, is top-lit and rectangular with side lobbies beneath galleries. Giant Corinthian pilasters support oak panelling to a high level with a plain frieze above. The seating is arranged in a horseshoe pattern in oak. Along the Euston Road front at first-floor level, the Mayor's Parlour is oak-panelled to full height with lugged and pedimented doorcases and a fine marble fireplace with burnished steel grate. The Chief Executive's Room is panelled to full height in Norfolk cedar with a good fireplace. Committee rooms throughout are well-panelled. An Assembly Hall occupies the ground floor, accessed from Tonbridge Street, with a foyer at the south end and a stage at the north end with proscenium arch. A deep south gallery and narrower west gallery communicate with the Council Chamber. Light-fittings, fixtures and furniture throughout are of a high standard, especially on the first floor, and were presumably largely designed by AJ Thomas.

AJ Thomas was a former assistant to EL Lutyens, whose influence of Classical style pervades the building. The town hall was originally designed as St Pancras Town Hall. Thomas designed several housing schemes for St Pancras Borough Council from 1924 onwards.