Former Hampton Wick Local Board offices and UDC office

Former Hampton Wick Local Board offices and UDC office

This is a three-storey building with basement, constructed of stock brick with a terracotta facade and slate roofs. Built in 1863, it originally housed a council chamber at raised ground floor level, with offices and caretaker's accommodation on the upper floors. The upper floors have since been subdivided into small flats.

The asymmetrical facade is entered through the right-hand bay, reached by steps (now concrete) between solid masonry parapet walls with terracotta dressings. The entrance itself is a round-arched opening between pilasters with lion's head capitals, beneath a frieze inscribed "Hampton Wick UDC" with the voussoir inscribed "1863". The door consists of two leaves with fielded lower panels and glazed upper panels, beneath a glazed segmental-headed overlight. Above runs a continuous cornice supported on the left by a moulded bracket.

Windows on the front elevation are metal-framed casements set into terracotta-clad openings. The ground floor window to the council chamber comprises a pair of two-light, ovolo-moulded mullion and transom windows with metal-framed casements and fixed lights with rectangular leaded panes. The upper lights feature armorial glass. These flank a broad central panel containing a pedimented clock face.

The upper floors are articulated by rusticated and panelled pilasters supporting deep moulded cornices; at second floor level sits a modillion cornice. Windows are arranged 2:3:2 across the bays. The first floor has a central three-light mullion and transom window flanked by similar two-light windows, all with leaded upper lights and plain glazed main lights. Each sits above a bolection-moulded panel enriched with strapwork decoration. Second floor windows are two and three-light casements to the central and left bays, with rectangular leaded lights.

A tall shaped gable, flanked by moulded obelisk finials, has a shaped pediment with flared flanks, also crowned by a moulded obelisk finial. The central bay is defined by plain pilasters beneath a shallow cornice, framing a moulded bas-relief panel depicting a stag beneath a crown. A swagged garland decorates the pediment.

Plain rectangular semi-basement windows are set behind a balustraded parapet wall to the street frontage. The piers have moulded bases and fixings that once supported lamp standards. The rear elevation is set out functionally, aside from a pair of two-light mullion and transom terracotta-clad window openings to the council chamber, with segmental-headed timber sashes.

Interior

The council chamber occupies the full depth of two bays and is a classically informed and remarkably intact space. The walls are enriched with fluted pilasters on tall moulded plinths within a deep dado, supporting a moulded cornice. The ceiling is square-panelled, set on robustly mutule-like brackets enriched with guttae.

The chimney breast is articulated by deeper pilasters flanking a bolection-moulded timber chimneypiece with a deep modillion cornice to the mantelshelf. The fireplace has deep red tiled slips and a replaced grate with a beaten metal hood.

Windows, set back between enriched fluted pilasters directly into ovolo-moulded terracotta openings, have metal-framed casements with leaded lights. The upper lights contain armorial glass panels; those to the rear are inscribed "The Urban District Council Hampton Wick MDCCCLXIII" and "County of Middlesex East Saxons".

Four ornate wall-mounted brass light brackets are present in the council chamber.

Ground floor mahogany doors, two to the council chamber, each comprise five moulded panels in an eared architrave beneath a shallow bolection-moulded frieze and moulded cornice.

A broad stair with a deep moulded skirting rises to the first floor level, above which the stair has been boxed in. The lowest flight of balustrade has been boxed in or removed. Above this sits a plain square oak newel, robust rectangular balusters, and a moulded oak rail, some renewed in the 1960s. The first floor has moulded cornices. Front elevation windows, also set in ovolo-moulded terracotta openings, have shaped plates and catches. Angled fireplaces with moulded chimneypieces appear on the first and second floors.

The basement stair has a square newel, stick balusters, a shaped rail, and ladder steps.

Alterations in the 1960s, which do not contribute to the building's special interest, included the insertion of a separate upper floor staircase.