Mitcham Vestry Hall is a municipal building in London Road,

Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. It h ...

, London. It is a locally listed building.

History

The building was commissioned as a

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 ...

hall for the benefit of the Parish of St Peter and St Paul: the site selected for the building had previously been occupied by the local police and fire stations. It was designed by Robert Masters Chart in the Victorian style, and was officially opened on 18 May 1887. However, the vestry hall was described, in 1895, as a "red brick blot"...which had..."ruined for ever the picturesqueness of Mitcham of old". The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto London Road; it featured a doorway with pediment in the furthest right bay with a tall clock tower rising above; there were windows in each of the bays on the first floor; it had a steeply pitched roof with a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fro ...

and

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

. The old

village lock-up A village lock-up is a historic building once used for the temporary detention of people in England and Wales, mostly where official prisons or criminal courts were beyond easy walking distance. Lockups were often used for the confinement of dru ...

which had formed the basement of the old police station was incorporated into the basement of the new building. The design also featured an entrance for the fire engine in the furthest left bay: the horse-drawn fire engine fire engine itself was replaced with an appliance made by

Merryweather & Sons Merryweather & Sons of Clapham, later Greenwich, London, were builders of steam fire engines and steam tram engines. The founder was Moses Merryweather (1791–1872) of Clapham, who was joined by his son Richard Moses (1839–1877). Fire appli ...

in 1912. Urban expansion saw the immediate area become the geographical and administrative centre of the developing township in the late 19th century and the building became the council offices for the new Mitcham Urban District Council in 1915. A large extension to the west was completed in 1930 and, after the area achieved

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

status, the building became known as "Mitcham Town Hall" in 1934. A room on the first floor of the extension was designated for use as a courtroom in the 1930s and the main hall was used as a

British Restaurant British Restaurants were communal kitchens created in 1940 during the Second World War to help people who had been bombed out of their homes, had run out of ration coupons or otherwise needed help. In 1943, 2,160 British Restaurants served 600,0 ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the

Municipal Borough of Mitcham Mitcham was a local government district in north east Surrey from 1915 to 1965 around the town of Mitcham. History Mitcham local government district was created in 1915 as an urban district from part of the abolished Croydon Rural District. It ga ...

but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

London Borough of Merton The London Borough of Merton () is a borough in Southwest London, England. The borough was formed under the London Government Act 1963 in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Mitcham, the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Merton ...

was formed in 1965. It was subsequently used as workspace by several departments of Merton Council including the Borough Treasurer's Department. However, after the council departments moved out in the 1980s, the building was refurnished and was revived as a community centre known as the "Vestry Hall". The building continues to be used for public meetings and is used by local community organisations working in the borough. In September 2014, the local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group held its first Annual General meeting there and, since 2019, Off The Record Youth Counselling delivers mental health services in the building. The Wandle Industrial Museum, which was established at Worsfold House in Church Road in Mitcham in June 1983 to preserve artifacts associated with the

River Wandle The River Wandle is a right-bank tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. With a total length of about , the river passes through the London boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton and Wandsworth, where it reaches the Thames. A sh ...

and its industrial heritage, moved to the annex in the grounds of the vestry hall in July 1989.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Merton City and town halls in London Government buildings completed in 1887