Deptford Town Hall | |
---|---|
Location | New Cross Road, Deptford |
Coordinates | 51°28′31″N0°02′16″W / 51.4753°N 0.0377°W Coordinates: 51°28′31″N0°02′16″W / 51.4753°N 0.0377°W |
Built | 1905 |
Architect | Henry Vaughan Lanchester, James Stewart and Edwin Alfred Rickards |
Architectural style(s) | Baroque style |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Designated | 5 July 1950 |
Reference no. | 1193691 |
Deptford Town Hall is a municipal building in New Cross Road, Deptford, London. It is a Grade II listed building. [1]
The building was commissioned to replace the aging vestry hall of St Paul's. [2] The site selected had previously been occupied by a row of residential properties with public baths behind. [3]
The new building was designed by Henry Vaughan Lanchester, James Stewart and Edwin Alfred Rickards in the Baroque style and built by Holloway Brothers; it was officially opened by the mayor, Councillor Joseph Pyne, on 19 July 1905. [4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto New Cross Road; the central section featured a round arched doorway flanked by figures of Tritons as corbels on the ground floor; there was an oriel window on the first floor with a carved relief of a ship's prow and a pediment containing a tympanum depicting a naval battle above that. [1] Statues of four naval figures, Sir Francis Drake, Robert Blake, Horatio Nelson and an unnamed contemporary admiral, were designed by Henry Poole, [5] and erected on the front of the building at first floor level. [2] A clock tower with a weather vane in the shape of a galleon was erected at roof level. [6] [7] Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the mayor's chamber on the first floor. [1]
During the First World War, the town hall was infamous for holding all its trials of conscientious objectors in secret. [8] This controversial practice was more recently explored in the film, Devils on Horseback, released in 2018. [9] [10]
In the bombing of the Second World War, a V-2 rocket destroyed a Woolworths store on the opposite side of the street killing 160 people in the shop with the blast superficially damaging the town hall itself. [11] [12]
The building was established as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged London Borough of Lewisham was formed in 1965. [13] It was used as a workspace for some council departments until it was acquired by Goldsmiths College in 2000. [6]
Blackheath is an area in southeast London, straddling the border of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham. It is located 1-mile (1.6 km) north east of Lewisham, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of Greenwich and 6.4 miles (10.3 km) south east of Charing Cross, the traditional centre of London.
Brockley is a district and an electoral ward of south London, England, in the London Borough of Lewisham 5 miles (8 km) south-east of Charing Cross.
Catford is a district in south east London, England, and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Lewisham. It is southwest of Lewisham itself, mostly in the Rushey Green and Catford South wards. The population of Catford, including the Bellingham, London neighbourhood, was 44,905 as of 2011.
Crofton Park is a mainly residential suburb and electoral ward in the London Borough of Lewisham.
Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Dockyards. This was a major shipbuilding dock and attracted Peter the Great to come and study shipbuilding. Deptford and the docks are associated with the knighting of Sir Francis Drake by Queen Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind, the legend of Sir Walter Raleigh laying down his cape for Elizabeth, Captain James Cook's third voyage aboard HMS Resolution, and the mysterious apparent murder of Christopher Marlowe in a house along Deptford Strand.
Lewisham is a London borough in south-east London; it forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham. The local authority is Lewisham London Borough Council, based in Catford. The Prime Meridian passes through Lewisham. Blackheath, Goldsmiths, University of London and Millwall F.C. are located within the borough.
Greenwich is a town in southeast London, located in the historic county of Kent and the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Lewisham Deptford is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Vicky Foxcroft of the Labour Party.
Lewisham is an area of south-east London, England, 5.9 miles (9.5 km) south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and is also within the historic county of Kent. It is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London, with a large shopping centre and street market.
New Cross is an area in south east London, England, 4.5 miles (7.2 km) south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich, and home to Goldsmiths, University of London, Haberdashers' Hatcham College and Addey and Stanhope School.
The Metropolitan Borough of Deptford was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it became part of the London Borough of Lewisham along with the Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham.
The Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965. It bordered the boroughs of Woolwich, Lewisham and Deptford and, across the River Thames, the borough of Poplar and the County Borough of West Ham in Essex. Within the area of the borough were the Royal Naval College, the Royal Observatory and Greenwich Park.
Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden.
Lewisham parks and open spaces are part of the "green lung" of London and include a diverse range of sites, from small urban parks and gardens to one of the most historic natural landscapes in Greater London at Blackheath. While overall control rests with London Borough of Lewisham, management of borough-owned parks and their facilities is contracted out to Glendale Grounds Management.
Addey and StanhopeSchool is a voluntary-aided, co-educational secondary school, located in Lewisham, London, England. It is a former grammar school and sixth form, with origins dating to 1606. The headmistress is currently Miss Jan Shapiro.
Sayes Court was a manor house and garden in Deptford, in the London Borough of Lewisham on the Thames Path and in the former parish of St Nicholas. Sayes Court once attracted throngs to visit its celebrated garden created by the seventeenth century diarist John Evelyn. Now completely buried beneath Convoys Wharf and Sayes Court Park, the area shows little sign of its former glory, despite having been a key factor in the creation of the National Trust.
Folkestone Gardens is a small urban park located in Deptford, south east London. Now part of the London Borough of Lewisham, it was created during the 1970s on an area badly damaged by bombs in World War II. The park was named after a street of railwaymen's houses that once stood on part of the site.
Lewisham Town Hall is a municipal building in Catford Road, Lewisham, London. The oldest part of the facility, the curved municipal offices, which is the headquarters of Lewisham London Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.
Bethnal Green Town Hall is a former municipal building on the corner of Cambridge Heath Road and Patriot Square in Bethnal Green, London. It is a Grade II listed building.