Old Town Hall, Poplar

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Old Town Hall
Former Poplar Board of Works, Poplar High Street - geograph.org.uk - 1516142.jpg
The building in 2009
Location Poplar High Street, Poplar
Coordinates 51°30′33″N0°00′57″W / 51.5091°N 0.0157°W / 51.5091; -0.0157
Built1870
ArchitectWalter Augustus Hills and Thomas Wayland Fletcher with Arthur and Christopher Harston
Architectural style(s) Gothic Revival style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameOld Poplar Town Hall and Council Offices
Designated1 July 1983
Reference no.1260135
Tower Hamlets London UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Shown in Tower Hamlets

The Old Town Hall is a former municipal building at the corner of Poplar High Street and Woodstock Terrace in Poplar, London. The building, which currently accommodates the Lansbury Heritage Hotel, is a Grade II listed building. [1]

History

The building was commissioned by the Poplar District Board of Works to serve as its hall and offices. [2] The site the board selected, on the north side of Poplar High Street, had been occupied by a row of alms houses erected by the East India Company in 1628. [3] [4]

Construction of the new building started in 1869. It was designed by Walter Augustus Hills and Thomas Wayland Fletcher with Arthur and Christopher Harston in the Gothic Revival style, built in yellow brick at a cost of £7,500 and was completed in October 1870. The design involved a distinctive three-stage octagonal tower at the southeast corner. The first stage involved a round headed opening flanked by Corinthian order colonettes supporting an archivolt and a keystone with elaborate carvings in the spandrels. There were sash windows on the first floor and sash windows with tracery on the second floor, all surmounted by a dome, a spire and a weather vane. The rest of the building was fenestrated by sash windows. The floors were separated by bands with mosaic detail. At roof level, there was a modillioned cornice and a series of dormer windows. [1]

The building became the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in 1900. [5] [6] It was the scene of the Poplar Rates Rebellion, led by George Lansbury, which advocated the use of rates for social reform, [7] and ultimately resulted in 19 councillors being put in prison in 1921. [8] The building ceased to be the local seat of government when the council moved to the new town hall in Bow Street in 1938. [9]

The old town hall remained in council ownership, being used as a district housing centre from 1986, until Tower Hamlets London Borough Council sold it to a developer, Dreamstar Limited, in 2011. It was subsequently converted into a boutique hotel, opening as the Lansbury Heritage Hotel in 2015. [8] [10] [11]

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References

  1. 1 2 Historic England. "Old Poplar Town Hall and Council Offices (1260135)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  2. ↑ New hall and offices for the Poplar District Board of Works. The Builder. 25 November 1871.
  3. ↑ "Ordnance Survey Map". 1865. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  4. ↑ Hobhouse, Hermione (1994). "Poplar High Street: The East India Company almshouses', in Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs". London: British History Online. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  5. ↑ Smith, Joanna (1998). "Greater London | Tower Hamlets | Bow Road | Bow House (Formerly Poplar Town Hall) (1993-08-03)". London's Town Halls (PDF) (Report). 93/1998. Historic England. pp. 180–181. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  6. ↑ Hobhouse, Hermione (1994). "'Poplar High Street: North side', in Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs". London: British History Online. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  7. ↑ "Tower Hamlets: rich with heritage". BBC. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  8. 1 2 Brooke, Mike (22 January 2014). "Fury at Tower Hamlets over knock-down sale of old Poplar Town Hall". East London Advertiser. Archived from the original on 13 February 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  9. ↑ Historic England. "Former Poplar Town Hall (Bow House), 157 Bow Road (1393151)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  10. ↑ "Poplar Town Hall owner Mujibul Islam receives apology and damages from The Telegraph in libel case". East London News. 13 May 2016. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "New checks to stop any more Tower Hamlets 'bargain' sell-offs like Poplar Town Hall". Docklands & East London Advertiser . 17 May 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
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