Chingford Town Hall is a municipal building in The Ridgeway, Chingford, London. It is a locally

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

In the early 20th century Chingford Urban District Council was based at some aging council offices in Station Road. After civic leaders found that the council offices were inadequate for their needs, they elected to construct a purpose-built facility: the site selected on the Ridgeway had previously been open land. The building, which was designed by Frank Nash and H.T. Bonner in the

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

and built by William Griffiths, Sons & Cromwell, was completed in December 1929. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the Ridgeway; the central section of three bays featured a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

flanked by

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

columns on the ground floor; there was a balcony and a round headed window with stone surround on the first floor and the borough

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

and a

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 pedimen ...

above; a clock and flagpole were erected at roof level. Internally, the principal rooms were the entrance hall with fine

terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bindi ...

flooring on the ground floor and the double-height council chamber with public gallery on the first floor. The building became the headquarters of the

Municipal Borough of Chingford Chingford was a local government district in south west Essex, England from 1894 to 1965, around the town of Chingford. It was within the London suburbs, forming part of the London postal district and Metropolitan Police District. Its former are ...

after it was awarded

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

status in 1938. The town hall was extended by the addition a two-storey office block, designed by Tooley and Foster and built by Gray Conoley & Co. to the south west of the town hall. The new block, which became known as the "Chingford Municipal Offices", was officially opened by the mayor, Councillor J. A. Cooper, on 12 November 1960. The town hall ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

London Borough of Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is a London borough in north-east London, England. Its population is estimated to be 276,983 in 2019. It borders five other London boroughs: Enfield to the north-west, Haringey to the west, Hackney to th ...

was formed in 1965. The Chingford Municipal Offices were subsequently used as additional workspace by the council until 2007 but, after being found surplus to requirements, the whole site was sold to a developer, Fairview New Homes, in 2011. The Chingford Municipal Offices were subsequently demolished and site redeveloped for residential use: the town hall itself was converted into five apartments after planning consent was given in January 2013.

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Waltham Forest City and town halls in London Government buildings completed in 1929