Sutton Civic Offices is a municipal facility in St Nicholas Way,

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Stu-Sz#Su, location * S ...

, London. It is the headquarters of

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

History

The current civic offices were commissioned to replace the old municipal offices at the corner of Throwley Road and the High Street which had been designed in the

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

and completed in 1902. The old municipal offices had been established as the offices of the Sutton Urban District Council and went on to become the headquarters of the

Municipal Borough of Sutton and Cheam Sutton and Cheam was a local government district in north east Surrey, England from 1882 to 1965. History Sutton Local Government District was formed on 20 December 1882, when the (civil) parish of Sutton adopted the Local Government Act 1858. ...

in 1934.Frederic A Youngs Jr., ''A Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England'', Vol I: Southern England, London, 1979 They continued to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

London Borough of Sutton The London Borough of Sutton () is a London borough in south-west London, England and forms part of Outer London. It covers an area of and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population. It borders the London Borough of Croydon to ...

was formed in 1965 but, having been assessed as uneconomic to maintain, were demolished in 1972. In the 1960s civic leaders had decided to procure new civic offices: the site they selected was occupied by three large private houses. They decided that the new civic offices, which would take over the role of headquarters of the London Borough of Sutton, would form part of a larger complex involving the civic offices to the south, a public library to the west and

Sutton College Sutton College (born 2015) formerly known as Sutton College of Learning for Adults (SCOLA, 2001-2015) and Sutton College of Liberal Arts (1972-2001), is a college based in the Borough of Sutton in London, England. The college offers over 1000 par ...

to the north. It was also intended to have a separate building for the council chamber but this was never built for financial reasons. The new building, which was designed by the assistant borough architect, Charles Sierakowski, in the

modernist style Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

, was completed in phases between 1972 and 1975. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage onto St Nicholas Way with a canopied glass entrance to the civic offices and to the public library on the left, and a canopied glass entrance to the college on the right: there were continuous rows of glazing with brickwork above and below on the first, second and third floors throughout the complex. In the absence of a purpose-built council chamber, a multi-purpose area within the public library known as the "Europa Gallery" was designated as available for use by the borough council for their meetings.

Notes

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Sutton City and town halls in London Government buildings completed in 1975 Sutton, London