Waltham Forest Town Hall (formerly Walthamstow Town Hall) is a municipal building located in

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in East London, east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London and the Historic counties of England, ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Chari ...

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

. The town hall, which is the headquarters of

Waltham Forest London Borough Council Waltham Forest London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Waltham Forest in London, England which has existed since the London Government Act 1963 was commenced in 1965, replacing three local authorities: Chingford Bor ...

, is a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Listed Building.

History

The building was commissioned to replace an earlier

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 ...

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

erected in Orford Road in 1866. After the area became an

urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...

in 1895 and then a

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 ...

in 1929, civic leaders decided to procure a purpose-built town hall: the site chosen for the new building had previously been occupied by Chestnuts Farm, also known as Clay Farm. They decided that the new town hall would be flanked to the south east by an assembly hall which would be built in the same architectural style and at the same time as the town hall. The foundation stone for the new building, in which contemporary artifacts were placed, was laid in 1938. The building was designed by

Philip Dalton Hepworth Philip Dalton Hepworth (12 March 1888 – 21 February 1963) was a British architect. He studied in both the UK and France, at the Architectural Association School of Architecture and the École des Beaux-Arts, and returned to work as an archite ...

in the stripped classical style. Construction of the building, which was built of

Portland Stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

, was interrupted by 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 opposin ...

and not completed until 1942.Novotny, Lukas. Page 34. Modern London. White Lion Publishing; 2018. . The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with 19 bays facing onto Forest Road with the end bays projecting forwards; the central section featured a three-bay full-height

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

with

pier image:Brighton Pier, Brighton, East Sussex, England-2Oct2011 (1).jpg, Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century. A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of ...

s supporting a

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

above containing the words "Walthamstow Town Hall"; there was a tall

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

-clad clock tower at roof level. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber which projected to the rear of the building: five statues carved by

John Francis Kavanagh John Francis Kavanagh (24 September 1903 – 18 June 1984) was an Irish sculptor and artist. In 1930 he was awarded the British School at Rome Scholarship in Sculpture. In 1933 he was appointed Head of Department of Sculpture and Modelling at th ...

were installed on the external walls of the council chamber and six relief sculptures, also by Kavanagh, were erected on the portico piers. File:Walthamstow Town Hall Panel Navvy.jpg, Navvy File:Walthamstow Town Hall Panel Mechanic.jpg, Mechanic File:Walthamstow Town Hall Panel Drilling.jpg, Drilling File:Walthamstow Town Hall sculpture Education 2.jpg, Education File:Walthamstow Town Hall sculpture Fellowship 2.jpg, Fellowship File:Walthamstow Town Hall sculpture Motherhood 2.jpg, Motherhood File:Walthamstow Town Hall sculpture Recreation 2.jpg, Recreation File:Walthamstow Town Hall sculpture Work 2.jpg, Work The assembly hall, which was also completed in 1942, 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

. The town hall continued to serve as the local seat of government after the expanded

was formed in 1965. The assembly hall hosted a concert performance by

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...

in January 1960 and by

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

in July 1974.

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

visited the town hall and had lunch with civic officials in March 2012. The council approved an extensive programme of renovation works to the town hall and the assembly hall in October 2019; the works authorised also included improved landscaping with water jets, night-time illumination and a reflection pool.

References

External links

Discography of classical albums recorded at the Assembly Hall
{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1942 City and town halls in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Waltham Forest Grade II listed government buildings Walthamstow Art Deco architecture in London Stripped Classical architecture