| Newham Town Hall | |
|---|---|
 Newham Town Hall | |
| Location | Barking Road,East Ham |
| Coordinates | 51°31′57″N0°03′19″E / 51.5326°N 0.0554°E /51.5326; 0.0554 |
| Built | 1903; 122 years ago (1903) |
| Architect | Henry Cheers and Joseph Smith |
| Architectural style | Renaissance style |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Designated | 31 January 1973; 52 years ago (1973-01-31) |
| Reference no. | 1190712 |
  Shown in Newham | |
Newham Town Hall, formerlyEast Ham Town Hall, is a municipal building in Barking Road,East Ham, London. The town hall, which is the headquarters ofNewham London Borough Council, is a Grade II*listed building.[1]
In the early 20th century the East Ham Urban District Council held its meetings in the local school board offices in Wakefield Street.[2] Following a rapid growth in the local population,[3] civic leaders decided to procure purpose-built council offices: the site chosen for the new building was a plot of open land on the corner of Barking Road and High Street South.[4]
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The foundation stone for the new building was laid in 1901.[5] It was designed by Henry Cheers and Joseph Smith in theRenaissance style, built by D.W. Barker and was officially opened by the philanthropist,John Passmore Edwards, on 5 February 1903.[6] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto Barking Road; the right hand section featured a 150 foot (46 m) high tower and a large archway to the extreme right inscribed with the words "Public Hall" above.[1][7] The tower contained a clock bySmith & Sons of Derby,[8] and an hour bell cast byJohn Taylor & Co of Loughborough, which weighed almost a ton (19cwt).[9] A long extension to the south of the main building was completed in 1910 and a three-storey annex was built to the east on Barking Road in 1939.[3] Internally, the principal rooms were the public hall, the council chamber and the mayor's parlour.[1]
It was built to serve as the administrative headquarters ofEast Ham Urban District Council. TheEast Ham Urban District was givenmunicipal borough status in 1904;[10] andcounty borough status in 1915.[11] The building continues to be the local seat of government after the formation of theLondon Borough of Newham in 1965, serving as its administrative headquarters.[12]
An additional building inStratford, which was designed by the borough architect, Ken Lund, and Norman White in the shape of aziggurat, was completed in May 1976; it was to have been joined by another, larger ziggurat, but after reductions in funding and criticism of the design the original ziggurat was demolished in February 1998.[13]
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Most council officers and their departments were re-located to Newham Dockside (Building 1000 in Dockside Road) in 2010.[14] The building had been designed byAukett Swanke and developed by Development Securities,Standard Life Investments and theLondon Development Agency as part of a scheme to regenerate theRoyal Albert Dock; it had been built byBowmer + Kirkland at a cost of £70 million and had been completed in June 2004.[15][16] After the developers had been unable to secure tenants, Newham Council acquired the building for £92 million and initiated a programme of fit-out works at a further cost of £19 million.[17] However, formal meetings of the council continue to take place in the town hall.[18]