Hounslow House is a municipal facility in Bath Road,

Hounslow Hounslow () is a large suburban district of West London, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 12 metropolitan centres in Gr ...

, London. The building is the headquarters of

Hounslow London Borough Council Hounslow London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Hounslow in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. History There have previously been a number ...

History

After

Hounslow Civic Centre Hounslow Civic Centre was a municipal facility at Lampton in Hounslow, London. The building provided accommodation for many of the offices of Hounslow London Borough Council. History In the early 20th century the Municipal Borough of Heston and ...

became uneconomic to operate,

decided to procure a smaller facility which would be located in the centre of the borough and more accessible to the public. The site they selected on Bath Road had previously been occupied by a car park. Linkcity were appointed the developer for the site in January 2017. Construction of the new facility, to be known as Hounslow House, began in November 2016. It was designed by

Sheppard Robson Sheppard Robson (previously Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners ) is a British architecture firm, founded in 1938 by Sir Richard Herbert Sheppard, with offices in London, Manchester, and Glasgow]. It was particularly influential in the 1950s– ...

in the Postmodern architecture, postmodern style, built by

Bouygues Construction Bouygues S.A. () is a French industrial group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip in the CAC 40 stock market index. The company was founded in 1952 by Fr ...

at a cost of £66 million and became available for occupation in April 2019. Approximately 1,300 employees were relocated during the move. The new building was officially opened by the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...

, on 1 May 2019. Hounslow Library, which had been based in the

Treaty Centre The Treaty Centre is an enclosed shopping mall in the town centre of Hounslow Hounslow () is a large suburban district of West London, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, ...

, relocated to the new building as part of the development.

Architecture

The design involves a symmetrical main frontage with sixteen glazed bays, separated by geometric shapes made from

anodised aluminium Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. The process is called ''anodizing'' because the part to be treated forms the anode electrode of an electro ...

, facing Lampton Road. The building, which measures , is seven storeys high. The ground floor is occupied by public meeting rooms; the library and registrar's office as well as the new adult education classrooms, are on the first floor; the offices of the council officers and their departments are on the second, third, fourth and fifth floors, while the council chamber is on the top floor. Hounslow Clinical Commissioning Group and the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

also have customer access points in the new building. The design was highly commended in the borough-led projects category of the London Planning Awards in January 2020.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 2019 Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Hounslow City and town halls in London