The Former Hampton Wick Local Board Office, also known as The Old Library or 45A High Street, is the former office of the

Local Board A local board of health (or simply a ''local board'') was a local authority in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulat ...

and, later, of the

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. ...

Hampton Wick Hampton Wick is a Thamesside area of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England, contiguous with Teddington, Kingston upon Thames and Bushy Park. Market gardening continued until well into the twentieth century. With its road and rail ...

in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in south-west Greater London, London, England, forms part of Outer London and is the only London boroughs, London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller ...

. It 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 which currently serves as private housing.

History

The Hampton Wick

was established in 1863, the year inscribed on the building. The erection of the local board office ensued in 1884 under the care of local architect Richard T. Elsam. The Local Board was supplanted by an

in 1894, which was absorbed by the

Municipal Borough of Twickenham Twickenham was a local government district in Middlesex, England from 1868 to 1965. History Twickenham Local Government District was formed in 1868, when the civil parish of Twickenham adopted the Local Government Act 1858 A local board of hea ...

in 1937. The building was later converted into a public library and, in the 1960s, received two apartments. By late 1970, the library was transferred over to
new building
on Bennet Close, and the building was converted back into an office. In 2013, the building gained a

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

Grade II listing after a "passionate local campaign". It was converted into an apartment building with 4 units in 2016.

Architecture

The building was designed by Richard T. Elsam in 1884 in the Jacobean style. The façade is clad in

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

and the roof is made of

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

tiles. A sweep of new concrete steps leads to the entrance located within a

semicircular arch In architecture, a semicircular arch is an arch with an intrados (inner surface) shaped like a semicircle. This type of arch was adopted and very widely used by the Romans, thus becoming permanently associated with Roman architecture. Termino ...

. The arch springs from imposts within a pair of

Composite Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic material ...

pilasters 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 ...

with

grotesques Since at least the 18th century (in French and German, as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

sculpted onto the

capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

. The capitals support a broken

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

which reads "HAMPTON WICK U.D.C.", and the break above the keystone reads "1863", commemorating the establishment of the Hampton Wick

. The façade is topped with a

Dutch gable A Dutch gable or Flemish gable is a gable whose sides have a shape made up of one or more curves and which has a pediment at the top. The gable may be an entirely decorative projection above a flat section of roof line, or may be the terminat ...

with

obelisks An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' rotisserie, spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called Obelisk (hieroglyph), ...

on either side. The gable features a roundel with a stag and crown, the seal of the local board designed by Sir Thomas James Nelson.

Gallery

References

1884 establishments in England 1880s establishments in England Jacobean architecture in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames {{Improve categories, date=September 2024