Greenwich Town Hall is a municipal building on Royal Hill,

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

, London. It is a Grade II

listed building 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, Hi ...

History

The building was commissioned to replace the old town hall on Greenwich High Road. By the 1930s, it was inadequate for the council's needs and civic leaders decided to build a new town hall: the site they selected for the new building had previously been occupied by the old

Greenwich Theatre Greenwich Theatre is a local theatre located in Croom's Hill close to the centre of Greenwich in south-east London. Theatre first came to Greenwich at the beginning of the 19th century during the famous Eastertide Greenwich Fair at which the Ri ...

. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the mayor, Councillor Harold Gibbons, on 18 June 1938. The new building was designed by Clifford Culpin in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style, built by William Moss & Sons and was completed in 1939. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with eleven bays facing onto Royal Hill; the central section had a doorway on the ground floor and there was a window on the first floor with 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 last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

above; there was a smaller window on the second floor. A high tower was erected to the north east of the main block facing onto Greenwich High Road. The principal rooms in the complex included the council chamber itself. At the foot of the tower was a doorway with a canopy showing the signs of the

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...

to a design by Carter & Co. The architectural historian,

Sir Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

, wrote that Greenwich Town Hall, which shows the influence of

Hilversum Town Hall The Hilversum Town Hall ( Dutch: ''Raadhuis Hilversum'') was designed by Willem Marinus Dudok to serve as seat of the municipal council of Hilversum in the Netherlands. Construction was completed in 1931. It is a much-admired building that is con ...

in the Netherlands, was "the only town hall of any London borough to represent the style of our time adequately". The south east wing of the building contained an assembly hall known as the Borough Hall. It served as an events and concert venue and performers included the band, ''

The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

'', in September 1964. The building remained the headquarters of the

Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich The Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich was a metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965. It bordered the boroughs of Woolwich, Lewisham and Deptford and, across the River Thames, the borough of Poplar and the County Bo ...

until the borough was merged with the

Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich The Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich was a Metropolitan boroughs of the County of London, metropolitan borough in the County of London from 1900 to 1965. It was formed from the civil parishes of Eltham, Plumstead and Woolwich (parish), Woolwich. ...

to form the

London Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London, England. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolita ...

, with its new local seat of government at

Woolwich Town Hall Woolwich Town Hall is an early 20th-century town hall located in the historic Bathway Quarter in the centre of Woolwich, South East London. Until 1965 it was the seat of local government of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, after which it b ...

, in April 1965. After the town hall ceased to be the local seat of government, it was extensively altered to create floors in the area of the council chamber in 1974. Renamed Meridian House, to reflect the fact that the

prime meridian A prime meridian is an arbitrarily chosen meridian (geography), meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. On a spheroid, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian ...

goes through Greenwich, it became the home of GSM London at that time. Meanwhile, the Borough Hall continued to be used as a concert venue: the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band Squeeze gave their first performance there in 1975, as commemorated by a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

on the side of the building. The Borough Hall went on to become the home of

Greenwich Dance Greenwich Dance is a dance organisation based within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London. History Founded in 1993, Greenwich Dance operated from the Borough Hall until 2018 when it moved to offices within Charlton House. Activities Each yea ...

from 1993 until the organisation moved out in 2018.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1939 City and town halls in London Grade II listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Grade II listed government buildings