Woolwich Town Hall

This grand civic building of 1903-6, designed in an exuberant English Baroque style, is constructed of orange-red brick and Portland stone with slate roofs and lead and copper-clad domes. The architect drew inspiration from the work of Sir Christopher Wren and James Gibbs, and more directly from John Belcher's Colchester Town Hall of 1898.

Layout and Planning

The building divides into two main parts: the front section facing Wellington Street contains the civic rooms and municipal offices, while the rear section in Market Street houses the public spaces. The front part rises two storeys over a basement. The entrance vestibule and various offices occupy the ground floor of the Wellington Street range, with a suite of three large committee rooms, the Mayor's parlour and office arranged on the principal floor above.

From the vestibule, visitors pass through to a grand double-height entrance hall of three domed bays surrounded by a gallery, which occupies most of the long rear range. Two tiers of offices run along the flank to Market Street, whilst on the opposite side a projecting block contains the first-floor council chamber with more offices beneath.

The public hall stands at right-angles to the end of this rear range, forming a separate unit with its own formal entrance to Market Street. This entrance gives access to a deep foyer flanked by cloakrooms, with more offices above. Beyond lies the hall itself, a large cruciform space surrounded on three sides by a gallery. Behind is a small extension of 1929-30, known as the Town Hall Annexe, which is not of special interest.

The Wellington Street Front

The main front to Wellington Street presents a complex, restless composition – qualities accentuated by the downhill slope of Wellington Street, which is marked by the repeated stepping-down of the area balustrade. The facade divides horizontally into a basement (comprising the lower two storeys) and a tall principal floor containing the committee rooms – the latter articulated by means of a full Scamozzian Order (a modified Ionic order based on the work of the 16th-century Venetian architect Vincenzo Scamozzi, with unfluted columns and capitals bearing pendants and angled scrolls).

The six principal bays are arranged in a 1-3-1 rhythm: three broad, tripartite middle bays form a projecting centrepiece, with two narrower bays set back slightly on each side. The flanking bays have rusticated stone quoins and circular attic windows. The centrepiece has rusticated stone in its outer sections and in the central bay, with small pedimented niches breaking through the rustication. The central bay curves forward in the centre to frame the main entrance, a rusticated arch containing wrought-iron gates with gilded wreaths. This is enclosed within a projecting porch, its small Ionic columns and architrave supporting a segmental pediment which contains the borough arms amid scrollwork and seated putti.

On the principal floor above, tall detached columns – paired at the ends and between the bays – support open segmental pediments; the middle pediment is set forward and enclosed within a larger, triangular pediment that spans the full width of the bay. The tall committee-room windows are set between the columns in a 'Venetian' arrangement, broad and round-headed in the centre of each bay and narrow and square-headed in the outer sections. Above runs a balustrade and, over the central bay, a lead-covered dome crowned by a ring of volutes supporting a flaming cresset.

The Clock Tower

Projecting from the left-hand return to Market Street is the 130-foot clock tower. The lower stage is stone-faced, with a huge and elaborately-carved corbel (palm fronds, putti and an armorial cartouche) supporting the mayor's balcony, whose canopy is an open-pedimented Ionic aedicule. The tall middle stage is of plain brick, relieved towards the top by four windows in stone architraves.

The superstructure is entirely of stone. The square clock stage, its four clock faces enclosed by open pediments on pilasters and angel corbels, develops into a cruciform stage with projecting segmental-headed aedicules, and then another, lower open stage with triangular pediments and outsize triple keystones. In the topmost stage, eight volutes support a finial of shields and angel heads surmounted by a cresset.

The Market Street Range

The long office range to Market Street is very much plainer. It is of twelve bays, the third, sixth and ninth being of double width and marked on the ground floor by Venetian windows with stone Doric columns, pilasters and entablatures. Apart from these, the use of stone is restricted to triple keystones above each of the windows and plain cills beneath.

The Public Hall Entrance

At the end of this range is the entrance to the public hall, forming a secondary front of seven bays arranged 1-1-3-1-1. The composition here is simpler than that of the Wellington Street front. Plain recessed outer sections flank two projecting bays, rusticated below and with channelled quoins above; the quoins also read as pilasters supporting the broad triangular pediment that spans the three-bay centrepiece. The latter is set back rather than forward, so the upper part of the pediment – which contains a circular window in an elaborate scrollwork surround – overhangs deeply.

The rusticated ground floor has three arched openings with Doric jamb columns and large scrolled and swagged keystones. The spandrels are richly carved with military trophies – crossed swords, spears, firearms and banners – in high relief, each surmounted by a mask.

General Exterior Features

Throughout the principal elevations there is much elaborate relief ornament in Portland stone: putti, winged cherubs' heads, scrollwork, foliage and the like. Windows (mostly six-over-six-pane sashes) are set within stone architraves with a mixture of triangular and segmental open pediments, triple keystones, ornamented jambs, carved cills, pendants, aprons and similar enrichments.

The Entrance Hall

The Wellington Street entrance leads to a narrow vestibule with a frieze of fruits, flowers and drapery. A short flight of stairs here gives access to the entrance hall, a grand double-height space comprising three domed bays, with deep side-arches over the circulation gallery that runs round all four sides; a fourth, low-ceilinged bay beneath the committee rooms serves as a lobby.

Light comes from circular openings in the domes and from large stained-glass lunettes in the side arches, supplemented by six elaborate bronze electroliers with Art Nouveau ornament. The ceiling is of coffered plasterwork with a rich modillion cornice, and the floor of black and white marble laid diamond-wise. Ionic columns, two to each bay, support the balustraded gallery and form screens to the circulation corridor beneath it. The monumental main stair is at the northern end, with a large Venetian window above; there are secondary stairs beneath the galleries on either side.

The Committee Rooms

The committee rooms are accessed from the southern gallery, via doors in elaborate hardwood surrounds with open pediments, winged cherubs' heads and palm fronds. The rooms were originally separated by folding asbestos partitions set within colonnaded screens, allowing the space to be divided into larger or smaller units as required. The screens and their associated panelling were removed in the 1960s, and the present partitions date from this period. Short corridors with domed ceilings and wall niches lead off the gallery to the mayor's reception room and private office. Many of the other offices retain their original hardwood doors and doorcases, as well as cornices, skirtings and fireplaces.

The Council Chamber

The council chamber, reached by twin pedimented doors from the gallery, is a square domed space, with tiered seating and a public gallery in a horseshoe surrounding a central dais. The dome has a circular opening surrounded by palm wreaths, while the pendentives contain oval ventilation grilles with enriched floral surrounds. Further palm wreaths crown the side-arches, three of which enclose large Venetian windows.

The lower walls and gallery-front are panelled in oak to match the benches, which have carved ends and frontals. The dais has a curved frontal adorned with oval panels, palm-fronds and pilasters; the elaborately carved and scrolled mayoral seat stands within a broken-pedimented aedicule enclosing an armorial cartouche and a shell niche.

The Public Hall

The marble-floored foyer to the public hall is of two broad bays divided by a screen of paired Ionic columns. The entrance bay has a richly-moulded plaster ceiling, while the inner bay has a glazed transverse barrel vault on scroll brackets; in the tympana are cartouches with winged cherubs' heads, scallop shells and foliage. Part-glazed hardwood doors in eared surrounds open left and right into the cloakrooms, and straight ahead into the hall.

This is a large space on a Greek cross plan with a central dome 50 feet across, surrounded by four deep arched bays enclosing the galleries and stage. An elaborate bronze electrolier hangs from the apex of the dome, which contains a ring of circular openings (now blocked) towards the base. In the pendentives are oval ventilation grilles in highly ornate plaster surrounds (scrollwork, palm fronds, flowers and putti). There are further ornamented grilles in the side arches. Stairs in the outer angles give access to the galleries, which are supported on scroll-brackets enriched with palm fronds, and lit by large Venetian windows. Under the right-hand gallery is a square opening leading to the Annexe. Behind the stage there was formerly an organ, now removed.

Stained Glass

The building contains several windows designed by the artist Geoffrey Webb to a scheme devised by the local antiquarian W.T. Vincent, depicting scenes and persons associated with the history of the town. Each is accompanied by an explanatory text. They include:

In the entrance hall, over the stairs: 'Here, in the month of October, 1637, the master shipwright Phineas Pett…conducteth Charles I on board H.M.S. Sovereign of the Seas, before her final departure from Woolwich…her building cost the King the affection of many of his subjects, who rebelled against the levy of the ship-money.'

In the middle committee room: 'Here, at Eltham Palace in Epiphany-tide of 1364, King Edward entertained with great splendour three noble Kings: John of France, David Bruce of Scotland and Waldemar of Denmark.' (The window was originally to have depicted the interior of the Arsenal shell foundry, or the emigration of dismissed workers to Canada in 1869, but these proposals were dropped.)

In the mayor's reception room: Sir Martin Bowes (died 1566), Lord Mayor of London in 1545, founder of the Goldsmiths' Almshouses in Woolwich.

In the council chamber: King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth I and the Borough arms.

In the public hall: Henry Maudslay (1771-1831), engineer; Colonel Richard Lovelace (1618-58), Cavalier poet; General Charles Gordon (1833-85), soldier and philanthropist.

Sculpture and Monuments

Notable items include:

In the entrance vestibule: two pedimented marble plaques, one commemorating the laying of the foundation stone in May 1903, the other a First World War memorial.

In the entrance hall, in niches flanking the principal stair: Second World War memorial bronze plaques with swan-neck pediments.

In the entrance hall, above the principal stair (originally positioned in the centre of the hall): over life-size Carrara marble statue of Queen Victoria by F.W. Pomeroy, erected by public subscription in December 1906; it is based on Pomeroy's earlier bronze sculpture at Chester.

In the entrance hall, between the doorways to the council chamber: two bronze plaques by Gilbert Bayes, commemorating the Borough Councillor and sometime mayor of Woolwich, William Barefoot (1872-1941).