The old Town Hall was a municipal facility at Kensington High Street in Kensington, West London. It was demolished in 1982.

History

The building was commissioned to replace the mid-19th-century

Kensington Vestry Hall The Kensington Vestry Hall is a former municipal building on Kensington High Street in Kensington, London, England. The structure, which was built for Kensington Vestry and now accommodates Bank Melli Iran is a Grade II listed building. Histor ...

in Kensington High Street, which had been designed by Benjamin Broadbridge in the

Tudor style Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...

for the Parish of St Mary Abbots Kensington. After the vestry hall had become inadequate for their needs, civic leaders decided to procure a new town hall; the site chosen for the new building had previously been occupied by the Kensington National School. The new building, which was designed by Robert Walker in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, was built by Braid and Co. on an adjacent site just to the east of the old vestry hall and was completed in 1880. The design involved a frontage of seven bays facing onto Kensington High Street; the central section of three bays featured a doorway with stone surround and canopy on the ground floor; there were tall windows with integrated

oculi An oculus (; ) is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. It is also known as an '' œil-de-boeuf'' from the French, or simply a "bull's- ...

interspersed with Corinthian order columns on the first floor and a large carved

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 pedim ...

and flagpole above. A large extension at the rear of the building, intended to create a new courtroom and committee room to a design by William Weaver, the surveyor to the vestry, and William Hunt, was completed in 1899. It went on to become the headquarters of the Royal Borough of Kensington when the area secured

Royal borough The following list of place names with royal patronage in the United Kingdom includes both those granted a royal title or status by express wish of a specific monarch, and those with prefixes or suffixes such as "King's" or "Regis" that relate to ...

status in 1901. Speakers in the post-war era included the leader of the

Union Movement The Union Movement (UM) was a far-right political party founded in the United Kingdom by Oswald Mosley. Before the Second World War, Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) had wanted to concentrate trade within the British Empire, but the Uni ...

Sir Oswald Mosley Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (16 November 1896 – 3 December 1980) was a British politician during the 1920s and 1930s who rose to fame when, having become disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism. He was a member ...

, who gave a speech at the town hall in 1963. Following the creation of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 1965, the council chose to build modern facilities at the new Kensington Town Hall in Hornton Street.

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

chose the town hall to deliver her " Britain Awake" foreign policy speech, which lambasted the Soviet Union for seeking world dominance, in January 1976. After the council moved to Hornton Street in 1977, the old town hall closed and was partly-demolished on the instructions of the Leader of the council,

Nicholas Freeman Nicholas Hall Freeman (25 July 1939 - 11 November 1989), OBE (1985) was the Conservative Party leader of the London Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council in the United Kingdom from 1977 until 1989; he was also its mayor in 1988. He wa ...

, "in controversial circumstances" involving an impending conservation order, in June 1982. Although demolition was temporarily halted, by the time that happened, the main frontage and the interior had been so badly damaged that what remained had to be completely cleared in 1984. The

Royal Fine Arts Commission The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) was an executive non-departmental public body of the UK government, established in 1999. It was funded by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for C ...

deplored the actions of the council as "official vandalism" and the Kensington Society predicted that the council would be "completely condemned" for their actions. A journalist writing in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' recorded the council as being "deeply shamed for the example it had set to other listed-building owners".

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures completed in 1880 Buildings and structures in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea City and town halls in London Demolished buildings and structures in London Buildings and structures demolished in 1982