Chiswick Town Hall (Former)

The former Chiswick Town Hall, now council offices, was originally built in 1876 by W J Trehearne, with extensions to the east and west added between 1900 and 1901 by Arthur Ramsden. It is constructed of stock brick with Bath stone dressings, including quoins, a cornice, and a porte cochère. The roof is slate.

The original building is a symmetrical three-bay composition, featuring a central porte cochère leading to a double-height entrance hall and an assembly hall. A 1900-1901 extension provides a secondary staircase hall in a matching three-bay design. The building has two storeys and tiny attics. The main range has round arched windows on the first floor and square windows under cornice brackets to the ground floor, with paired windows except for the tripartite composition over the panelled double entrance doors within a round-arched stone surround. The porte cochère has grouped Corinthian columns on square bases, round-arched openings with carved spandrels, and a stone balustrade. A deeply moulded modillion eaves cornice is topped by a balustraded parapet, while pediments feature over both main and secondary entrances. The side elevation to Sutton Court Road, dating from 1900-1901, is also symmetrical with a tripartite composition, featuring a central entrance flanked by four-bay ranges under pediments. The window pattern is reversed on this elevation, with round arches on the ground floor and square windows on the first floor.

The interior is richly decorated. The double-height entrance hall has a tiled dado, and an imperial staircase with iron balustrades. Oak panels, installed in 1911, commemorate Ramsden’s extension, and the corridors beyond feature colourful terrazzo flooring. Behind the entrance hall lies the large assembly hall, formerly the Devonshire Hall, with seven bays of round-arched arcades under keystones, a heavy dentilled cornice, a stage with console brackets forming a proscenium, and a coved top-lit ceiling; a balcony has an elaborate cast-iron balustrade. A side entrance in Sutton Court Road has coloured glass double doors and a fanlight, leading to a paybox for the hall. Adjacent is the supper room, or Hogarth Room, with a smaller, lower stage featuring a similarly decorated cornice bracket proscenium. The room has pilasters to the walls, a trabeated ceiling, and mahogany double doors to a side lobby. This lobby is richly decorated with a marble dado, a fireplace, and a bust of Hogarth, and features coloured glass toplights. A staircase with a fat marble balustrade ascends to the council chamber, the entrance of which is lined in lincrusta, with coloured glass toplights and double doors. The council chamber itself is simpler, with a five-bay layout, a one-bay balcony with elaborate, polished, carved wood detailing, and an open timber truss rafter roof with coloured glass in the gables. Former mayoral and committee rooms are now used as offices, and are accessed via corridors lined with green tiles. The building is notable as an unusually lavish example of a town hall possessing a good array of decorated public spaces.