The Old Town Hall is a former municipal building on East Street in

Barking, London Barking is a riverside town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It is east of Charing Cross. The total population of Barking was 59,068 at the 2011 census.If defined as the Abbey, Eastbury, Gascoigne, L ...

. The building, which was converted for use as a magistrates' court in 1960 and more recently for residential use, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The building was commissioned by the Barking Local Board, formed in 1882, to serve as public offices. The site the board selected, on the southeast side of East Street, was occupied by a market garden. The new building was designed by a local architect, Charles James Dawson, in the Renaissance Revival style, built in red brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1893. The design involved a near symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto East Street. The central bay featured a large stone

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 cu ...

with a round headed opening and elaborate carvings in the

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...

s. The end bays, which were slightly projected forward, were fenestrated by

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed and transomed windows on the ground floor and by

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window generally projects from an ...

s with

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

-shaped heads on the first floor, all surmounted by gables. The other bays were fenestrated by mullioned and transomed windows in a similar style. At roof level, there a brick

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

and a central

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

with a clock, an ogee-shaped dome and a

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

. The building became the offices of Barking Urban District Council in 1894. Following a visit by Prince George in 1931, when he conferred borough status on the area, it became the headquarters of the new borough council. It ceased to be local seat of government when the council relocated to the new town hall in 1958. The building was subsequently converted for use as the local magistrates' court and re-opened as such in August 1960. In December 1989, the building was the venue for the initial stages of the trial of the former boxer, Terry Marsh, who was accused of having shot the boxing promoter, Frank Warren, outside the Broadway Theatre in Barking. March was sent for trial at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

and was later acquitted. HM Courts and Tribunals Service ceased using the building as a courthouse in September 2011. The courthouse featured in the television drama ''Lawless'', starring

Suranne Jones Sarah Ann Akers (née Jones; born 27 August 1978), known professionally as Suranne Jones, is an English actress and producer. Known for her numerous collaborations with screenwriter Sally Wainwright, she rose to prominence playing Karen McDonal ...

as a judge, in 2013. It was subsequently sold to a developer and then converted into 13 apartments also in 2013. A new building, connected by a bridge, was erected behind the original building to accommodate a further 24 apartments with retail space on the ground floor.

References

{{reflist Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham City and town halls in London Government buildings completed in 1893 Grade II listed government buildings