Mulberry Place | |
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![]() View of Mulberry Place | |
Location | Mulberry Place, Blackwall |
Coordinates | 51°30′36″N0°00′22″W / 51.5100°N 0.0062°W |
Built | 1992 |
Architect | Sten Samuelson and the Beaton Thomas Partnership |
Architectural style(s) | Modernist style |
Mulberry Place, formerly Tower Hamlets Town Hall, is a building in Nutmeg Lane, Blackwall, London. It was the headquarters of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council from 1992 to 2023, before their relocation to the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall in Whitechapel Road.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets was formed in 1965 by the merger of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney. The new authority was initially based at Bethnal Green Town Hall. [1] [2]
In the early 1990s, the council decided to move to a more modern building, on the site of the former East India Import Dock. [3] The new Town Hall, completed in 1992 and occupied the following year, [4] [5] was built by the Nordic Construction Company, with Birse Construction the main contractor. [3] The new building formed part of a larger development of four linked blocks, [3] designed by Sten Samuelson and the Beaton Thomas Partnership in the Modernist style. [3] [6] The design made extensive use of reflective glazing and pink Sardinian granite. [3]
The name Mulberry Place commemorates the construction of Mulberry harbours in the dock during the Second World War, [7] and reflects the sprig of mulberry included in the boroughs coat of arms in recognition of the East End's weaving heritage. [8] The ship bell of the sloop HMS Crane is placed in the Town Hall foyer. The ship was adopted by the Borough of Bethnal Green during the Second World War and the connection with the ship and its crew has been maintained ever since. [9]
In February 2015 the council acquired the old Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel Road and announced plans to convert it for use as the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall to which the council would relocate when it became available. [10] [11]
In 2018, the Mulberry Place building's owner LaSalle Investment, which charges £5 million per year in rent for Mulberry Place, [12] announced that it would convert the building into flats after the council moved. [13] The move to the new site was completed on 1 March 2023. [14]
The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Hamlet, Parish and, for a time, the wider borough of Poplar. The name had no official status until the 1987 creation of the Isle of Dogs Neighbourhood by Tower Hamlets London Borough Council. It has been known locally as simply "the Island" since the 19th century.
Poplar is a district in East London, England, now part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Five miles (8 km) east of Charing Cross, it is part of the East End.
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed a civil and ecclesiastical parish after splitting from the ancient parish of Stepney in the 14th century. It became part of the County of London in 1889 and Greater London in 1965. The district is primarily built around Whitechapel High Street and Whitechapel Road, which extend from the City of London boundary to just east of Whitechapel station.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a borough of London, England. Situated on the north bank of the River Thames and immediately east of the City of London, the borough spans much of the traditional East End of London and includes much of the regenerated London Docklands area. The 2019 mid-year population for the borough is estimated at 324,745.
Poplar was a local government district in the metropolitan area of London, England. It was formed as a district of the Metropolis in 1855 and became a metropolitan borough in the County of London in 1900. It comprised Poplar, Millwall, Bromley-by-Bow and Bow as well as Old Ford, Fish Island and Cubitt Town.
Blackwall is an area of Poplar, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. The neighbourhood includes Leamouth and the Coldharbour conservation area.
The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was a quango agency set up by the UK Government in 1981 to regenerate the depressed Docklands area of east London. During its seventeen-year existence it was responsible for regenerating an area of 8.5 square miles (22 km2) in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Southwark. LDDC helped to create Canary Wharf, Surrey Quays shopping centre, London City Airport, ExCeL Exhibition Centre, London Arena and the Docklands Light Railway, bringing more than 120,000 new jobs to the Docklands and making the area highly sought after for housing. Although initially fiercely resisted by local councils and residents, today it is generally regarded as having been a success and is now used as an exemplar of large-scale regeneration, although tensions between older and more recent residents remain.
Cubitt Town is a district on the eastern side of the Isle of Dogs in London, England. This part of the former Metropolitan Borough of Poplar was redeveloped as part of the Port of London in the 1840s and 1850s by William Cubitt, Lord Mayor of London (1860–1862), after whom it is named. It is on the east of the Isle, facing the Royal Borough of Greenwich across the River Thames. To the west is Millwall, to the east and south is Greenwich, to the northwest Canary Wharf, and to the north — across the Blue Bridge — is Blackwall. The district is situated within the Blackwall & Cubitt Town Ward of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council.
Leamouth is a locality in the Blackwall area of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The area takes its name from the former Leamouth Wharf and lies on the west side of the confluence of the Bow Creek stretch of the Lea, at its confluence with the River Thames.
East London is the northeastern part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of railways in the 19th century encouraged the eastward expansion of the East End of London and a proliferation of new suburbs. The industrial lands of East London are today an area of regeneration, which are well advanced in places such as Canary Wharf and ongoing elsewhere.
The East India Docks were a group of docks in Blackwall, east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. Today only the entrance basin and listed perimeter wall remain visible.
The Trinity Independent Chapel was an early Victorian church in Poplar. It was destroyed by a V-2 rocket hit during the Second World War, and later re-built in Modernist style. In the late 1990s the building was sold to the Calvary Charismatic Baptist Church, and since then has served as their Prayer Temple and international headquarters.
The A1206, also known as the Isle of Dogs Distributor Road, is a crescent-shaped ring road around the Isle of Dogs, in the East End of London. It is made up of Westferry Road, Manchester Road and Prestons Road and is the main road through the area, connecting parts of the London Docklands.
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have universally accepted boundaries to the north and east, though the River Lea is sometimes seen as the eastern boundary. Parts of it may be regarded as lying within Central London. The term "East of Aldgate Pump" is sometimes used as a synonym for the area.
St George in the East, historically known as Wapping-Stepney, was an ancient parish, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, England. The place name is no longer widely used.
Coldharbour is a street and wider conservation area in Blackwall, lying on the north bank of the River Thames, east of Canary Wharf. The area is said to be "[t]he sole remaining fragment of the old hamlet of Blackwall" and "one of the last examples of the narrow streets which once characterised the river's perimeter".
Cascades Tower is a 20-storey residential building and a distinctive local landmark on the Isle of Dogs in East London. It was designed by Rex Wilkinson, a partner in the celebrated architectural firm CZWG, and built in 1987–88.
Tower Hamlets Town Hall is a municipal facility in Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, London. The new structure, which has been commissioned as the headquarters of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council, incorporates the façade of the old Royal London Hospital which is a Grade II listed building.