Mulberry Place

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Mulberry Place
Tower Hamlets Town Hall 2015-06-19 02.jpg
View of Mulberry Place
LocationMulberry Place, Blackwall
Coordinates 51°30′36″N0°00′22″W / 51.5100°N 0.0062°W / 51.5100; -0.0062
Built1992
Architect Sten Samuelson and the Beaton Thomas Partnership
Architectural style(s) Modernist style
Tower Hamlets London UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Shown in Tower Hamlets

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.

History

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]

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References

  1. ↑ "No. 45244". The London Gazette . 4 December 1970. p. 13356.
  2. ↑ "London's Town Halls". Historic England. p. 178. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Hobhouse, Hermione (1994). "'Modern Docklands: Gazetteer of modern non-housing developments', in Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs". London: British History Online. pp. 707–724. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  4. ↑ Hobhouse, Hermione (1994). "'Modern Docklands: Modern commercial developments', in Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs". London: British History Online. pp. 702–707. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  5. ↑ "Architect sought for new Tower Hamlets town hall". Architects Journal. 7 December 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  6. ↑ Cherry, Bridget; Bradley, Simon; O'Brien, Charles; Pevsner, Sir Nikolaus (2005). London: East. Yale University Press. p. 661. ISBN   978-0300107012.
  7. ↑ "Damaged buildings at the East India Docks, Blackwall". Port Cities. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  8. ↑ "Site describing the provenance of the coat of arms". 19 March 2019. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  9. ↑ "ELA article on Remembrance ceremony at the Town Hall" . Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  10. ↑ "Old Royal London Hospital sold for £9m to Tower Hamlets council for a new town hall". Docklands and East London Advertiser. 6 February 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  11. ↑ "Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman spends £9m turning old hospital into council 'palace'". Evening Standard. 6 February 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
  12. ↑ "New Town Hall". Tower Hamlets London Borough Council. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  13. ↑ "Council 'powerless' to stop town hall being turned into flats". BD. 5 October 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  14. ↑ "Historic Whitechapel building reopens as Tower Hamlets' new town hall". East London Lines. 1 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
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