Camden Town Hall, known as St Pancras Town Hall until 1965, is the headquarters of

Camden London Borough Council Camden London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Camden in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Camden is divided into 18 wards, each electing th ...

. The main entrance is in Judd street with its northern elevation extending along

Euston Road Euston Road is a road in Central London that runs from Marylebone Road to King's Cross. The route is part of the London Inner Ring Road and forms part of the London congestion charge zone boundary. It is named after Euston Hall, the family ...

, opposite the main front of

St Pancras railway station St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is ...

. It has been

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

since 1996.

History

In the early 20th century the borough council was based at the 19th century

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

offices in St Pancras Way which had been commissioned for the Parish of St Pancras. After civic leaders found that the vestry offices were inadequate for their needs, they elected to construct a purpose-built facility: the site selected on Euston Road had previously been occupied by some Georgian terraced housing. The new building was designed by Albert Thomas, who also designed housing schemes for the St Pancras Borough Council, in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

. The construction which was undertaken by Dove Brothers of

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

involved a

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...

clad with

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

and the work started in 1934. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with 13 bays facing onto Judd Street; the central section of three bays featured three doorways on the ground floor; there were three windows on each of the first and second floors flanked by huge

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

columns supporting a

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

. A carving of the borough

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

was erected above the central window on the first floor. The design for the Euston Road frontage involved 23 bays with two sections designed in a similar style to the Judd Street elevation i.e. with windows flanked by huge Corinthian order columns supporting pediments. Internally, the principal rooms were an assembly hall on the ground floor in the east of the building and the council chamber and mayor's parlour on the first floor in the west of the building. The building was officially opened in October 1937. A "Caribbean Carnival", a precursor of the

Notting Hill Carnival The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean festival event that has taken place in London since 1966

, was held on 30 January 1959 in the town hall, organised by activist

Claudia Jones Claudia Vera Jones (; 21 February 1915 – 24 December 1964) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist. As a child, she migrated with her family to the US, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and black national ...

as a response to the

1958 Notting Hill race riots The Notting Hill race riots were a series of racially motivated riots that took place in Notting Hill, England, between 29 August and 5 September 1958. Background Following the end of the Second World War, as a result of the losses during the wa ...

and the state of race relations in Britain at the time. A few months later, on 27 May 1959, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, Princess Margaret attended a meeting of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the town hall. The building served as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras and continued to operate as the local seat of government after the formation of the London Borough of Camden in 1965. An eight-storey extension designed by the borough architect's department was built to the east of the main building in 1977. It was designed in a modern architectural style and was clad in white pre-cast panels with curved window corners. A rooftop conservatory was added in the 1990s. In February 2020 the council started a programme of refurbishment works to plans prepared by Purcell (architects), Purcell. The works, which are being managed by Lendlease at an estimated cost of £40 million, involve restoration of the historic areas used by the council and the redevelopment of the basement and upper floors so those floors can be let out as commercial space.

References

{{reflist Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden City and town halls in London Government buildings completed in 1937 Grade II listed government buildings