Wandsworth Town Hall Wandsworth Town Hall (Including Town Hall)

Wandsworth Town Hall, built between 1935 and 1937 by Edward A Hunt, stands on Wandsworth High Street. The building, constructed of Portland stone and brick, occupies a triangular plot at a busy corner. Its design incorporates a central forecourt leading to the main entrance, with a projecting council chamber on the rear elevation. The town hall is three storeys high.

The exterior features banded rustication to the ground floor and tripartite metal windows within simple surrounds. Deep eaves, a moulded cornice adorned with incised bands and decorative bands suggesting implied architectural orders, and a bas relief frieze depicting events in Wandsworth's history by David Evans and John Linehan, are also notable features. The facade facing Wandsworth High Street, fifteen bays wide, culminates in a projecting wing with a two-storey round-arched staircase window, a stepped architrave, and a fluted cornice. A canted cornerpiece, topped with a finial, leads to a fifteen-bay return facing Fairfield Street, with a projecting three-bay terminal block, similar to the one at the High Street end. Another canted block, also with a finial, surmounts the recessed entrance front, which is seven bays wide and includes a carriage opening beneath a Vitruvian scroll band featuring a central coat of arms. Elaborate cast-iron railings, with rosette decoration on a stone plinth, piers topped with sarcophagal urns, and double gates, form part of the overall composition.

The inner courtyard features a Portland stone centrepiece facing the principal members’ rooms and leading to double doors opening into a marble-lined hall with hexagonal coffering and round pendant light fittings. An imperial staircase, with bronze balustrades, rises to an upper hall, characterized by square piers, a well, and walls lined with African onyx, surmounted by a pendant glass chandelier. Committee rooms overlooking the forecourt and offices for the Leader of the Council and the Opposition are panelled in English oak, with moulded cornices, ceilings, and art-deco glass light fittings. The Mayoral parlour includes panelling, cornice mouldings, a bolection-mould fireplace with tiled surrounds and grate, and a tapestry overmantle, and is connected to the Town Clerk’s panelled office by an internal door.

The Council chamber projects from the rear of the site and is flat-floored, with a raised gallery for press and public. The six-sided chamber has diagonal-paned top lights, oak panelling, acoustic plaster, and fabric hangings. It retains its original councillors’ furniture and an elaborate chandelier. The corridors and many secondary rooms are also panelled in English oak with moulded plaster ceilings. The town hall is included on the list as an unusually lavish and well-planned building, surviving in excellent condition.