Finsbury Town Hall is a municipal building in

Finsbury Finsbury is a district of Central London, forming the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Islington. It borders the City of London. The Manor of Finsbury is first recorded as ''Vinisbir'' (1231) and means "manor of a man called Finn ...

, London. The structure is a Grade II* listed building.

History

The building was commissioned by the Parish of St James's Church, Clerkenwell to replace an early 19th century vestry hall at the corner of Garnault Place and Rosoman Street which had been described as "the smallest and worst vestry hall in London". The site chosen for the new building was just to the north of the old vestry hall. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 14 July 1894. It was designed by William Charles Evans-Vaughan in the Flemish Renaissance Revival style and built by Charles Dearing 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 ...

; it was officially opened by the Prime Minister, Lord Rosebery, as Clerkenwell Town Hall on 14 June 1895. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto Rosebery Avenue; the central section featured a projecting cast iron porch flanked by composite order columns on the ground floor; there was an arched opening containing a Venetian window on the first floor and a four small windows on the second floor with a projecting clock above. Internally, the principal rooms were the great hall, which was elaborately decorated in a Belle Époque style, and the council chamber which had a vaulted plaster ceiling supported by

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

columns. The great hall was illuminated by sculptures of female figures, known as the "Clerkenwell Angels", which were designed by Jackson & Co. and which supported brass light fittings, made by Vaughan & Brown. The original vestry hall was demolished in the late 1890s, allowing the new building to be extended to cover the whole area enclosed between Rosebery Avenue, Garnault Place and Rosoman Street. The new building became the headquarters of the enlarged Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury in 1900. During the Second World War an air raid shelter and control centre was built under Garnault Place with access from the town hall; this facility was then maintained as a nuclear fall-out shelter during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged London Borough of Islington was formed in 1965. It subsequently served as a register office and also as a social services centre. In 1993 a plaque was erected outside the town hall to commemorate the life of Sir Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Asian to become a British Member of Parliament. Islington Council closed the building, because of the rising cost of maintenance, in June 2003. Then, after a programme of restoration works to the designs of

RHWL RHWL Architects (originally Renton Howard Wood Levin Architects) was a British architecture practice based in London, Berlin and Qatar. It was established by Andrew Renton, Peter Howard, Humphrey Wood and Gerald Levin following the establishment of ...

, the town hall re-opened as the home of the performing arts college, Urdang Academy, with the principal rooms used for dancing classes, in January 2007. It remains an approved venue for marriage and civil partnership ceremonies.

Gallery

File:Finsbury Town Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1501847.jpg, Main entrance on Rosebery Avenue File:Clerkenwell Town Hall plaque.jpg, Plaque commemorating the opening of the building File:Finsbury Town hall interior.jpg, The council chamber File:Finsbury Town Hall grand hall.jpg, The great hall File:Dadabhai Naoroji plaque, Finsbury Town Hall.jpg, Plaque commemorating the life of Sir Dadabhai Naoroji File:Finsbury Town Hall.jpg, Rosebery Avenue frontage

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Islington Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Islington City and town halls in London Government buildings completed in 1895