Shoreditch Town Hall

Shoreditch Town Hall

Originally a vestry hall, later Shoreditch Town Hall and subsequently the Borough Health Department, this building is now owned by a trust. It was built in four distinct phases.

The eastern section of five bays was constructed in 1866 as a vestry hall by C A Long. Between 1898 and 1902, following the creation of the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch under the Local Government Act of 1899, W C Hunt incorporated this earlier vestry hall into a monumental new Shoreditch Town Hall. This expansion comprises a further three bays to the west, linked by a set-back bay with tower. The original vestry hall was preserved as a council hall, with a new public hall added on the first floor. In 1904 this public hall was gutted by fire and completely rebuilt by A W Cross. A rear wing was added to the south between 1936 and 1938.

The Old Street frontage is rendered in Classical style with Portland stone to the front and stock brick to the sides. The building is two storeys with attic accommodation and nine windows. The first floor features arcading with wreaths and palm fronds, elaborate keystones and Corinthian engaged columns. The ground floor is rusticated with a stone balustraded area. The eastern part has an open pediment terminated by paterae, with recessed niches containing urns on plinths, a cambered window with keystone and cast iron balcony. The pediment was altered following the 1904 fire. The ground floor features keystones carved with male and female masks. An Ionic tetrastyle porch rises five steps with curved balustrading. A recessed link bay has a round-headed window and curved pediment with Ionic columns to the doorcase. Above the link stands a square tower of two stages with Corinthian pedimented faces, from which a torch-bearing figure of Progress emerges from a niche. The western three bays have a pediment with female figures in classical attire representing Light and Power, inscribed with the motto "More light more power". The first floor arcading matches the western section, whilst the ground floor has a central keystone of Mercury, with representations of Labour to the right and a king's head to the left. The 1936-8 extension to Rivington Street rises four to five storeys in red brick with tall stone architrave, municipal shield and the same motto. The original double doorcase survives, though windows were replaced in the late twentieth century.

Interior

The original vestry hall from the 1866 building survives, reused as a Council Chamber. It is considered the largest and grandest of the London vestry halls, featuring engaged Ionic columns and a coved ceiling with central panels and elaborate ceiling roses. The entrance hall has a Minton tiled floor, plaster ceiling roses and a double staircase with Doric piers and triglyph frieze. The first floor Assembly Hall dates from 1905, rebuilt by A W Cross after the fire. It comprises a curved ceiling of six bays, ribbed and coffered with glazed skylights, a proscenium arch with masks of comedy and tragedy, and a large shell niche to the stage with a lyre. The balcony is decorated with cornucopias, while the sides and rear of the ground floor are lined with marble panels in three colours. The 1898 wing contains a further well staircase with scrolled cast iron balustrading and wooden handrail, and a stained glass window with the municipal crest. The first floor features a suite of committee rooms, one with a vaulted ceiling and curved stained glass windows, retaining original fireplaces and joinery. The 1936-8 wing has a well staircase with metal handrail.