Description

TQ 3075
17/16
BRIXTON HILL SW2 (west side)
Lambeth Town Hall


II
Town Hall. 1905-8 by Septimus Warwick and H Austen Hall, raised and extended 1935-8 by Whinney, Son and Austen Hall, job architect ER Silver. Red brick with Portland stone dressings in modified Baroque style. L-shaped plan abutting the angle between Brixton Hill and Acre Lane, with a rounded corner over which rises tall square, brick tower with wide stone quoins and heavy cornice on square brackets. Stage above has clock faces under open pediments with sculptured figures, representing Justice, Science, Art and Literature, at angles. Top stage has scrolled angle buttresses supporting crown finial on plinth.

Main body of building of red brick banded in stone and with high stone plinth and heavy modillioned cornice with balustraded parapet. Windows in stone architraves with elaborate keystones, those on ground floor round arched. Rusticated stone angle section with Ionic Order through slightly set back first floor. Three windows in rebated bay at either side of doorway under coat of arms with supporting figures and crown crest. This part raised a storey in 1935-8. Western extension in simplified style, with firstly a symmetrical five-bay composition of three set-back tripartite casements - those to the ground floor rich round arches and those to the first and second floors with keystones - between projecting single-range wings with stone plinths and quoins, that to the east incorporating a door with large fanlight and moulded keystone. All with second floor band, bolection-moulded cornice and parapet. Finally a five-bay range with ground floor of Portland stone, double height metal casements, and projecting metal canopy over double doors leading to assembly hall, culminating in corner tower with aediculed openings, pediment and chimney. Blind rear elevation particularly handsome, relieved by a single figure of 'youth' by Denis Dunlop.

Interior reached through long, narrow entrance hall flanked by stairs to council chambers, relieved with plaques to Violet Szabo, the 'Windrush' and other important local residents and events, also memorials to the fallen of both World Wars. Plaque of a wheelwright's shop by Tinworth. Former rates hall, now meeting room at rear reached off vaulted corridors. From entrance hall, staircases to either side with metal balustrades, brass rails and marble dado panels lead to civic suite. This survives little altered, with original cornices and panelled interlinking doors to committee rooms. Council chamber in rear angle (over rates hall) is a double-height rectangular space with public gallery over, original fixed horseshoe seating and deep coved ceiling. Original light fittings. Assembly hall with original raised panelling and stage, reached also by separate entrance which has marble-lined vestibule, trabeated ceiling, paybox and original glass light fittings.

Listing NGR: TQ3094575210

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Lambeth Town Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q23663120

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)