Description

TQ 3286 HACKNEY STOKE NEWINGTON CHURCH STREET
(North side)
735-/11/10030 Stoke Newington Municipal
Buildings and surrounding walls

GV II

Former Town Hall, now municipal offices, and assembly hall. 1935-7 by J Reginald
Truelove for the Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington. Long, handmade, buff bricks between Portland stone ground floor and cornice, with lavish stone dressings. Westmorland slate roof. Plan consists of council offices in segmental building, with square assembly hall to east and library offices beyond. Two storeys, with attic set back at rear.

The main elevation of the council offices a segmental curve through ninety degrees, fifteen bays in extent. A symmetrical composition with broad stone bands over the ground floor stonework and dentiled cornice, it has projecting end pavilions of stone and a broader centrepiece recessed behind giant round columns in antis - all with balconies, that to centre recessed between columns and set over entrance. Marble architraved doorcase, bronze double doors and a flagpole supported on a single volute mark this as the centrepiece of the main composition, though principal entrance now that more directly facing Stoke Newington Church Street with decorative balcony front. All windows of metal with margin lights in stone architrave surrounds, including those to seven-bay attic. Rear elevation is also symmetrical: nine windows wide in alternating stone architraves, that to centre with pediment and with end staircase windows. Projecting entrance to left with consciously austere surround, and single window above. Five-bay assembly hall has three-bay frontage with stone end pavilions set either side of four giant columns in antis. Double doors with much decorative ironwork tracery, set between columns, with balconies over. High stone pediment with unmoulded guttae. Three-bay links to either side connect the building with the former town hall and library offices, the latter with its own entrance and balcony over. The exterior is notable for retaining its wartime camouflage markings. The Stoke Newington Church Street frontage with high piers topped with original lights and overthrow, rear elevation has walls; all of these form an important part of the composition.

Interiors. The principal council chamber and committee rooms reached from original central entrance, via entrance lobby with marble terrazzo floor and imperial staircase of teak with balustrade of wrought iron and silvered bronze. Stair hall and vestibule to former council chamber with lunettes and pilasters and commemorative boards. The council chamber originally of double height with public balcony; now with false ceiling, the lower part is used as an office, but balcony and moulded ceiling with dome and Diocletian windows survive above, and the whole retains fine Australian walnut panelling with pilasters. Former mayor's parlour above ceremonial entrance, and beyond this the committee rooms, with retractable walls so they could be joined into one curved space, moulded ceilings, cornices and plasterwork. The Assembly Hall survives completely: rectangular in plan with narrow gallery to the south and proscenium arch to thenorth, the other walls lined with pilasters. Sprung dance floor of Canadian maple. The hall is reached via foyer through double doors with metal grilles, and with marble terrazzo floor set in a decorative pattern.

Included as a good example of an inter-war complex of town hall and assembly hall, with particularly good materials and fine detailing.

Source
Architect and Building News, 8 October 1937, pp. 39-43.

Listing NGR: TQ3296286481

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Stoke Newington Municipal Buildings And Surrounding Walls at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26545214

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.

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