Southall Town Hall is a municipal building in High Street,

Southall Southall () is a large suburban town in West London, England, part of the London Borough of Ealing and is one of its seven major towns. It is situated west of Charing Cross and had a population of 69,857 as of 2011. It is generally divided ...

, London. It has been designated a local heritage asset.

History

In 1878, the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

, which had not previously been active, was instructed to find a permanent home for its meetings. After the area became an urban district as Southall-Norwood Urban District Council in 1894, this need for a permanent home became more pressing and the vestry board decided to procure purpose-built council offices in the High Street: the site they selected was open land owned by the

Earl of Jersey Earl of Jersey is a title in the Peerage of England. It is held by a branch of the Villiers family, which since 1819 has been the Child Villiers family. History The earldom was created in 1697 for the statesman Edward Villiers, 1st Viscou ...

. The

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

for the new building was laid by the Countess of Jersey on 8 November 1897. It was designed by Thomas Newall in the

classical style Classical architecture typically refers to architecture consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or more specifically, from ''De architectura'' (c. 10 AD) by the Roman architect Vitruvius. Va ...

, built by C.F. Kearley of

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon, northwest of Charing Cross. Uxbridge formed part of the parish of Hillingdon in the county of Middlesex. As part ...

and was completed in 1898. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the High Street; the central section featured a

tetrastyle 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 cultu ...

porch with

Doric order The Doric order is 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 t ...

columns on the ground floor and there was a window with a balcony flanked by Doric order

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 on the first floor with a

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 ...

containing a clock above. The principal room was the

council chamber A debate chamber is a room for conducting the business of a deliberative assembly or otherwise for debating. When used as the meeting place of a legislature, a debate chamber may also be known as a council chamber, legislative chamber, assembly ...

on the first floor. The building became the headquarters of the

Municipal Borough of Southall Southall (until 1936 Southall Norwood) was a local government district in the county of Middlesex, United Kingdom from 1891 to 1965. It consisted of the civil parish of Norwood. History Southall Norwood Local Government District was created on ...

in 1936 but ceased to function as the local seat of government when the enlarged

London Borough of Ealing The London Borough of Ealing () is a London boroughs, London borough in London, England. It comprises the districts of Acton, London, Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale and Southall. With a population of 367,100 inhabitants, i ...

was formed in 1965. It subsequently operated as a training and enterprise centre. In April 1979, Blair Peach, a New Zealand teacher and

anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...

campaigner, died after being hit on the head, probably by a member of the

Special Patrol Group The Special Patrol Group (SPG) was a unit of Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service, responsible for providing a centrally based mobile capacity to combat serious public disorder, crime, and terrorism, that could not be dealt with by loca ...

(SPG), a specialist unit within the Metropolitan Police Service, during a riot outside the town hall. In 2017, the council decided to dispose of a long

leasehold A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a Lease, lessee or a tenant has rights of real property by some form of title (property), title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold right ...

interest in the town hall to the Vishwa Hindu Kendra temple, which is based just north of the hall. However, after the High Court decided in July 2018 that the council had acted unlawfully and unreasonably in trying to sell the building, the council decided in September 2018 not to appeal.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1898 City and town halls in London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Ealing