Newham Town Hall

Newham Town Hall, formerly East Ham Town Hall, is a municipal building in Barking Road, East Ham, London. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Newham London Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building.^[1]

Newham Town Hall
Newham Town Hall
Location	Barking Road, East Ham
Coordinates	51.5326°N 0.0554°E / 51.5326; 0.0554
Built	1903; 122 years ago (1903)
Architect	Henry Cheers and Joseph Smith
Architectural style(s)	Renaissance style
Listed Building – Grade II*
Designated	31 January 1973; 52 years ago (1973-01-31)
Reference no.	1190712
Shown in Newham

History

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]

Detail on the north face of the town hall

The foundation stone for the new building was laid in 1901.^[5] It was designed by Henry Cheers and Joseph Smith in the Renaissance 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 by Smith & Sons of Derby,^[8] and an hour bell cast by John 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 of East Ham Urban District Council. The East Ham Urban District was given municipal borough status in 1904;^[10] and county borough status in 1915.^[11] The building continues to be the local seat of government after the formation of the London Borough of Newham in 1965, serving as its administrative headquarters.^[12]

An additional building in Stratford, which was designed by the borough architect, Ken Lund, and Norman White in the shape of a ziggurat, 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]

Offices at Newham Dockside

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 by Aukett Swanke and developed by Development Securities, Standard Life Investments and the London Development Agency as part of a scheme to regenerate the Royal Albert Dock; it had been built by Bowmer + 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]