The Carshalton Council Offices is a former municipal building on The Square,

Carshalton Carshalton ( ) is a town, with a historic village centre, in south London, England, within the London Borough of Sutton. It is situated around southwest of Charing Cross and around east by north of Sutton town centre, in the valley of the Rive ...

, London. The structure, which was briefly the headquarters of Carshalton Urban District Council before becoming a public library, is a

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

building.

History

Following a significant increase in population, largely associated with the growing importance of the area as a residential suburb of London, the area became an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

in 1894. The new

urban district council In England and Wales, an urban district was a type of local government district that covered an urbanised area. Urban districts had an elected urban district council (UDC), which shared local government responsibilities with a county council. ...

initially rented premises in the High Street. In the early 20th century, civic officials, led by the clerk to the council, Charles Lovelock, launched an initiative to raise funds for purpose-built council offices. The site they selected, on the west side of The Square, had formed part of the grounds of All Saints Church. It was designed by R. Frank Atkinson and W. Willis Gale in the

Baroque Revival style The Baroque Revival, also known as Neo-Baroque (or Second Empire architecture in France and Wilhelminism in Germany), was an architectural style of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term is used to describe architecture and architectu ...

, built in red and blue bricks with stone dressings at a cost of £2,500 and was officially opened by the chairman of the council, C W Edwards, on 21 December 1908. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto The Square; the central section bay featured a doorway flanked by banded

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, which was broken by a large keystone, and an open segmental

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

. There was a

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

flanked by stone

scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...

s on the first floor. The other bays were fenestrated by

cross-window A cross-window is a window whose lights are defined by a mullion and a transom, forming a cross.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture'', 2nd ed., OUP, Oxford and New York, p. 214. . The Late ...

s on the ground floor and by casement windows on the first floor. At roof level, there was a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

. Within a few years the civic leaders decided that the building was too small and Lovelock persuaded the

lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

, Blake Taylor, to sell land including The Grove and the rest of the area around the upper ponds to the council. By the mid-1920s, the council had relocated its offices to The Grove. The old council offices in The Square were converted for use as a library and a museum and were re-opened by the former member of parliament, Sir Thomas Worsfold, in January 1931.Palmier 2010, p. 23 The museum failed to attract sufficient visitors and the collection was put into storage two years later. However, the building continued to serve the people of Carshalton as a public library until December 2012 when the library service relocated to the Westcroft Centre. The building then became a nursery but that also closed in 2020.

References

{{Reflist Government buildings completed in 1908 Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Sutton Carshalton City and town halls in London