Newham Town Hall, formerly East Ham Town Hall, is a municipal building in Barking Road, East Ham, London. The town hall, which is the headquarters of Newham London Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building.[1]
| Newham Town Hall | |
|---|---|
 Newham Town Hall | |
| Location | Barking Road, East Ham |
| Coordinates | 51°31′57″N 0°03′19″E / 51.5326°N 0.0554°E |
| Built | 1903 |
| Architect | Henry Cheers and Joseph Smith |
| Architectural style(s) | Renaissance style |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Designated | 31 January 1973 |
| Reference no. | 1190712 |
  Shown in Newham | |
History
In the early 20th century the East Ham Urban District Council held its meetings in the local school board offices in Wakefield Street.[2] Following a rapid growth in the local population,[3] civic leaders decided to procure purpose-built council offices: the site chosen for the new building was a plot of open land on the corner of Barking Road and High Street South.[4]
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The foundation stone for the new building was laid in 1901.[5] It was designed by Henry Cheers and Joseph Smith in the Renaissance style, built by D.W. Barker and was officially opened by the philanthropist, John Passmore Edwards, on 5 February 1903.[6] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto Barking Road; the right hand section featured a 150 foot (46 m) high tower and a large archway to the extreme right inscribed with the words "Public Hall" above.[1][7] The tower contained a clock by Smith & Sons of Derby,[8] and an hour bell cast by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough, which weighed almost a ton (19cwt).[9] A long extension to the south of the main building was completed in 1910 and a three-storey annex was built to the east on Barking Road in 1939.[3] Internally, the principal rooms were the public hall, the council chamber and the mayor's parlour.[1]
It was built to serve as the administrative headquarters of East Ham Urban District Council. The East Ham Urban District was given municipal borough status in 1904;[10] and county borough status in 1915.[11] The building continues to be the local seat of government after the formation of the London Borough of Newham in 1965, serving as its administrative headquarters.[12]
An additional building in Stratford, which was designed by the borough architect, Ken Lund, and Norman White in the shape of a ziggurat, was completed in May 1976; it was to have been joined by another, larger ziggurat, but after reductions in funding and criticism of the design the original ziggurat was demolished in February 1998.[13]
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Most council officers and their departments were re-located to Newham Dockside (Building 1000 in Dockside Road) in 2010.[14] The building had been designed by Aukett Swanke and developed by Development Securities, Standard Life Investments and the London Development Agency as part of a scheme to regenerate the Royal Albert Dock; it had been built by Bowmer + Kirkland at a cost of £70 million and had been completed in June 2004.[15][16] After the developers had been unable to secure tenants, Newham Council acquired the building for £92 million and initiated a programme of fit-out works at a further cost of £19 million.[17] However, formal meetings of the council continue to take place in the town hall.[18]