Wimbledon Town Hall is a municipal building in The Broadway, Wimbledon, London. It is a Grade II

listed building 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 I ...

History

The building was commissioned to replace the aging public offices on the same site which had been designed by Thomas Goodchild 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 ...

and completed in 1878. 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) (his ...

in 1894 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 1905, civic leaders decided that the old public offices were inadequate for their needs and should be demolished to make way for a new building. The new building, which was designed by Bradshaw Gass & Hope in the Classical style, was officially opened by Prince George on 5 November 1931. Edward Foster VC, who had been born in

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

, was present for the ceremony. The design involved a symmetrical frontage with eleven bays at the junction of Queen's Road and the Broadway; the outer bays projected forward slightly and incorporated huge

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s, while the central section of three bays featured a portico flanked by Doric order columns and

s on the ground floor with the borough

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

above; there were square-headed windows in all the bays on the first floor with a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. Th ...

above. The complex originally included an assembly hall at the rear and a "Kinema" for showing

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

s; the complex was equipped with a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

made by

John Compton Sir John George Melvin Compton, (29 April 1925 – 7 September 2007) was a Saint Lucian politician who became the first Prime Minister upon independence in February 1979. Having led Saint Lucia under British rule from 1964 to 1979, Compton s ...

allowing it to host a regular programme of concerts by the Wimbledon Symphony Orchestra. 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 ...

, a civil defence control centre was installed in the basement and observation posts were placed on the roof. The building served as the headquarters of the

Municipal Borough of Wimbledon Wimbledon was a local government district in north-east Surrey from 1866 to 1965 covering the town of Wimbledon and its surrounding area. It was part of the London postal district and Metropolitan Police District. History Wimbledon Local Govern ...

for much of the 20th century and continued to serve as the local seat of government of 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 Mer ...

after it was formed in 1965. However, it became surplus to requirements after the council moved to Crown House in Morden in 1985. Following three planning inquiries, the assembly hall at the rear was demolished in the late 1980s, to make way for the Centre Court Shopping Centre. This left only the front range in place, which itself was converted for retail use to the designs of the

Building Design Partnership Building Design Partnership Ltd, doing business as BDP, is a firm of architects and engineers employing over 900 staff in the United Kingdom and internationally. History BDP was founded in 1961 by George Grenfell-Baines with architect An arc ...

in 1990. The groceries retailer,

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues an ...

, moved into the ground floor of former front range of the town hall while the clothing business, H&M, took the first floor a few years later.

References

{{reflist Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Merton City and town halls in London Government buildings completed in 1931 Grade II listed government buildings