Wandsworth Town Hall Wandsworth Town Hall (Including Town Hall)

WANDSWORTH HIGH STREET TQ 2574 (north side) 1207-/12/10019 Wandsworth Town Hall Town Hall (including walls and gates) II

Town Hall. 1935-7 by Edward A Hunt. Portland stone and brick, hipped pantiled roof Triangular plan adapted to busy corner site, with central forecourt leading to main entrance and projecting first-floor council chamber to rear. Three storeys. Exterior with banded rustication to ground floor, tripartite metal windows in unmoulded surrounds, deep eaves and moulded cornice adorned with incised bands and decorative bands incorporating capitals to orders implied in the vertical bands of stonework below. Bas relief frieze depicting events in Wandsworth's history by David Evans and John Linehan. Fifteen-bay front to Wandsworth High Street culminates in three-bay projecting wing with two-storey round-arched staircase window under stepped architrave and fluted cornice. Canted five bay cornerpiece surmounted by finial leads eye to fifteen-bay return to Fairfield Street with projecting three-bay terminal block. Similar canted block with finial the other side of recessed entrance front of seven bays, with carriage opening under Vitruvian scroll band with central coat of arms. Elaborate cast-iron railings with rosette decoration on stone plinth, with piers topped by sarcophagal urns and double gates form part of the composition. Inner courtyard with Portland stone centrepiece fronting principal members' rooms, over entrance double doors. These lead to marble-lined hall with hexagonal coffering and round pendant lightfittings, from which imperial stair with bronze balustrades rise to upper hall, under square piers with well and walls lined in African onyx and with pendant glass chandelier. Committee rooms overlooking forecourt, offices for Leader of the Council and the Opposition either side: all with English oak panelling, moulded cornices and ceilings and pink art-deco glass hanging light fittings. Mayoral parlour with panelling, cornice mouldings, bolection-mould fireplace with tiled surrounds and grate, and tapestry overmantle; linked via internal door to panelled office of Town Clerk. Council chamber projects at rear of site, flat-floored with separate, raised gallery for press and public. Canted six-sided chamber, with diagonal-paned top lights; oak panelling with acoustic plaster and fabric hangings over. Full suite of councillors' furniture and elaborate chandelier. The corridors and many subsiduary rooms also panelled in English oak with moulded plaster ceilings. Included as an unusually lavish and well-planned town hall, surviving in excellent condition.

Listing NGR: TQ2577774710