Limehouse Town Hall is a former town hall building on

Commercial Road Commercial Road is a street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. It is long, running from Gardiner's Corner (previously the site of Gardiners department store, and now Aldgate East Underground station), throug ...

, in

Limehouse Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains through ...

, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The building was commissioned by the Limehouse Board of Works as a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

hall for the benefit of the Parish of St Anne's. The site selected by the vestry had previously been occupied by a private residence belonging to a Mr. Walter. The foundation stone for the building was laid by the

churchwarden A churchwarden is a lay official in a parish or congregation of the Anglican Communion or Catholic Church, usually working as a part-time volunteer. In the Anglican tradition, holders of these positions are ''ex officio'' members of the parish b ...

, James Rollinson, on 21 October 1879. The building was designed Arthur and Christopher Harston in the

Palazzo style Palazzo style refers to an architectural style of the 19th and 20th centuries based upon the '' palazzi'' (palaces) built by wealthy families of the Italian Renaissance. The term refers to the general shape, proportion and a cluster of characteri ...

and built by J. H. Johnson and was opened as the vestry hall of the Limehouse District on 29 March 1881. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Commercial Road; the central section featured a portico flanked by Corinthian order columns and a balcony above; there were round headed windows on the first floor and a carved

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

above. The principal rooms were the council chamber on the ground floor and an assembly room on the first floor. After the civil parish became a part of the

Metropolitan Borough of Stepney The Metropolitan Borough of Stepney was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London created in 1900. In 1965 it became part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Formation and boundaries The borough was formed from thirteen civil parishes ...

in 1900, the town hall ceased to be the seat of local government and was used as an events venue and administrative centre. On 30 July 1909 the Chancellor of the Exchequer

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...

made a polemical speech in the assembly room, attacking the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

for its opposition to his "

People's Budget The 1909/1910 People's Budget was a proposal of the Liberal government that introduced unprecedented taxes on the lands and incomes of Britain's wealthy to fund new social welfare programmes. It passed the House of Commons in 1909 but was blo ...

". This speech was the origin of the phrase "To Limehouse", or "Limehousing", which meant an incendiary political speech. The building was badly damaged in

the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

but was subsequently restored and re-opened by the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

, Clement Attlee, in November 1950. Responsibility for management of the building was transferred to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 1965 and it was re-opened as the

National Museum of Labour History The People's History Museum (the National Museum of Labour History until 2001) in Manchester, England, is the UK's national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of working people ...

by the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, in May 1975. After the museum got into financial difficulties and then closed in 1986, the building served as the Wapping Neighbourhood Offices until 1994, when it became a training centre and winter shelter for homeless people. The building was placed on English Heritage's list of buildings at risk in 2003 but, after the Limehouse Town Hall Consortium Trust was formed and secured a long lease on the building in 2004, the building was restored with support from English Heritage and re-opened as a community centre in April 2012.

Features and current use

The building has a number of offices located on the ground floor below the assembly room. It has been home to several groups, such as the Space Hijackers, the Voice Refugee Forum Stitches in Time, the University of Openess, Twenteenth Century and the Boxing Club (this is no longer a boxing club, but a group that hires spaces and arranges occasional events, mostly to raise money for the upkeep of the venue), and some self-help bicycle maintenance workshops. The building is not generally open to the public, but participates in Open House London for guided tours of the building.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Limehouse Town Hall
Local government buildings in London Cultural and educational buildings in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets City and town halls in London Town Hall Government buildings completed in 1881