| Paddington Town Hall | |
|---|---|
 Paddington Town Hall | |
| Location | Harrow Road, Paddington |
| Coordinates | 51°31′12″N0°10′35″W / 51.5200°N 0.1763°W |
| Built | 1853 |
| Demolished | 1965 |
| Architect | James Lockyer |
| Architectural style(s) | Neoclassical style |
  Shown in Westminster | |
Paddington Town Hall was a municipal building in Harrow Road, Paddington, London. The structure, which was the headquarters of the Paddington Metropolitan Borough Council, was demolished in 1965.
The building was commissioned as a vestry hall for St Mary on Paddington Green Church: the site selected for the building, which had previously been identified for potential use as an additional burial ground, was immediately to the west of the church on the north side of Harrow Road. [1]
The new hall was designed by James Lockyer in the neoclassical style, built in white brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1853. [2] [3] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto Harrow Road with the last two bays at each end projected forward as pavilions; the central section of three bays, featured a porch formed by a colonnade of Tuscan order columns supporting a canopy. [2] The building became the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Paddington when it was formed in 1900; [4] it was enlarged at that time and enlarged again in 1920. [5]
A war memorial made of teak panels intended to commemorate the lives of service personnel who had died in the First World war was installed in the outer hall of the town hall in 1924. [6] The building served as sleeping accommodation for female telephone operators working for the local Air Raid Precautions Staff during the Second World War. [7] On the night of the 14 March 1940 the Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb close to the town hall; no-one was injured in the attack. [7] A high-profile public inquiry took place in the town hall in October 1954: developers had proposed to erect three blocks of flats to be named "Perkins Heights" on part of Paddington Green. [8] London County Council opposed the scheme, which ultimately did not proceed, and Paddington Technical Institute established a campus there instead. [9]
The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the metropolitan borough for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged City of Westminster was formed in 1965. [10] It was then demolished to make way for the Westway urban motorway later that year. [5] [11] The original teak war memorial panels were destroyed when the building was demolished, as no home could be found for them, but a three-volume book of remembrance was relocated to St James's Church, Paddington. [6] A green plaque was erected on the Paddington Exchange Building at the corner of Harrow Road and Hermitage Street, in 2015, to commemorate the site of the former town hall under the Westway. [12]
Kilburn is an area of north west London, England, which spans the boundary of three London Boroughs: Camden to the east, City of Westminster, and Brent to the west. There is also an area in the City of Westminster known locally as "Mozart" that along with Queens Park and Kensal Green are known as West Kilburn, which sometimes is treated as a distinct locality. Kilburn High Road railway station lies 3.5 miles (5.6 km) north-west of Charing Cross.
Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed by the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel opened in 1847. It is also the site of St Mary's Hospital and the former Paddington Green Police Station.
The Westway is a 2.5-mile (4 km) elevated dual carriageway section of the A40 trunk road in West London running from Paddington in the east to North Kensington in the west. It connects the London Inner Ring Road to the West London suburbs.
Paddington was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of Paddington became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area became part of the City of Westminster in Greater London.
Maida Vale is an affluent residential district which is north of Paddington in West London, England. It is to the south-west of St John's Wood and south of Kilburn. It is also the name of its main road, on the continuous Edgware Road. Maida Vale is part of the City of Westminster, 3.1 miles (5.0 km) north-west of Charing Cross. It has many late Victorian and Edwardian blocks of mansion flats. The area is home to the BBC Maida Vale Studios.
Swiss Cottage is an area of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden, England. It is centred on the junction of Avenue Road and Finchley Road and includes Swiss Cottage tube station. Swiss Cottage lies 3.25 miles (5.23 km) north-northwest of Charing Cross. The area was named after a public house in the centre of it, known as "Ye Olde Swiss Cottage".
West Hampstead is an area in the London Borough of Camden in north-west London. Mainly defined by the railway stations of the same name, it is situated between Childs Hill to the north, Frognal and Hampstead to the north-east, Swiss Cottage to the east, South Hampstead to the south-east, Kilburn to the west and south-west, and Cricklewood to the north-west. The area is mainly residential with several small shops, restaurants, cafes, bakeries concentrated on the northern section of West End Lane and around West End Green. It is served by three stations: West Hampstead on the Jubilee line, West Hampstead Overground station and West Hampstead Thameslink station. It is part of the Kilburn postal district (NW6).
Childs Hill is one of two areas at the south end of the London Borough of Barnet along with Cricklewood which straddles three boroughs. It took its name from Richard le Child, who in 1312 held a customary house and "30 acres" of its area. It is a mainly late-19th-century suburban large neighbourhood centred 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross bordered by the arterial road Hendon Way in the west and south-west, Dunstan Road in the north, West Heath and Golders Hill Park which form an arm of Hampstead Heath to the east and the borough boundary as to the short south-east border.
Queen's Park is an area located partly in the City of Westminster and mostly in the London Borough of Brent. Some of the area within Westminster forms a civil parish, the first to be created in London since the right of communities to establish civil parishes was enacted in 2007. The area is located 3.9 miles (6.3 km) north-west of Charing Cross, and centred around a 30 acres (12 ha) park, which opened in 1887 and was named in honour of Queen Victoria. The area gives its name to Queens Park Rangers football club.
Westbourne is an area in West London. It has a manorial history spanning many centuries, within a more broadly defined Paddington, before shedding its association in the mid-19th century. It is named after the west bourne, West Bourne, or River Westbourne, a Thames tributary which was encased in 19th-century London in the 1850s. The spring-fed stream and associated manor have led to the place names Westbourne Green, Westbourne Park and more narrowly: Westbourne Gardens, Westbourne Grove, Westbourne Park Road, Westbourne Park tube station, Westbourne Studios and the name of a public house.
The Harrow Road is an ancient route in North West London which runs from Paddington in a northwesterly direction towards Harrow. It is also the name given to the immediate surrounding area of Queens Park and Kensal Green, straddling the NW10, W10, W2 and W9 postcodes. With minor deviations in the 19th and 20th centuries, the route remains otherwise unaltered.
Kilburn Priory was a small monastic community of nuns established around 1130–1134 three miles north-west of the City of London, where Watling Street met the stream now known as the Westbourne, but variously known as Cuneburna, Keneburna, Keeleburne, Coldburne, or Caleburn, meaning either the royal or cow's stream. The priory gave its name to the area now known as Kilburn, and the local streets Priory Road, Kilburn Priory, Priory Terrace, and Abbey Road. Kilburn Lane connected the priory to the village of Kensal to the west.
St Mary on Paddington Green is an Anglican church in the Parish of Little Venice, London, and forms part of Paddington Green conservation area. Today it stands at the junction of Edgware Road and Harrow Road, overlooking the East end of Westway and the approaches to Marylebone Flyover, so seen by tens of thousands of motorists daily.
Bayswater Synagogue was an Ashkenazi-Orthodox synagogue located in Chichester Place, Paddington, London, near the Harrow Road. Built in 1863, as a branch synagogue jointly of the Great Synagogue and the New Synagogue, it was one of the original five synagogues that formed the United Synagogue in 1870. The original building was demolished in 1965 for construction of the Westway overpass and the Warwick Estate redevelopment.
Little Venice is an affluent residential district in West London, England, around the junction of the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, the Regent's Canal, and the entrance to Paddington Basin. The junction forms a triangular shape basin. Many of the buildings in the vicinity are Regency white painted stucco terraced town houses and taller blocks (mansions) in the same style. The area is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) west-north-west of Charing Cross and immediately north-west of Paddington.
Cleveland Square is a private and gated garden square in the predominantly classically conserved Bayswater district of the City of Westminster, north of Central London's Hyde Park. The housing is in tall, tree-shaded rows, stuccoed and with pillared porches, with some discreet infilling of other housing behind.
Hampstead Town hall is a municipal building on Haverstock Hill, Hampstead, London. It is a Grade II listed building.