Wimbledon Town Hall is a municipal building in The Broadway,

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

, 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 aging public offices on the same site which had been designed by Thomas Goodchild in the Italianate style and completed in 1878. After the area became an urban district in 1894 and then a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

in 1905, civic leaders decided that the old public offices were inadequate for their needs and should be demolished to make way for a new building. The new building, which was designed by

Bradshaw Gass & Hope Bradshaw Gass & Hope is an English architect, architectural practice founded in 1862 by Jonas James Bradshaw (–1912). It is Bolton's oldest architectural practice and has exhibited archive drawings in London and Manchester. The style "Bradshaw ...

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 ...

, was officially opened by Prince George on 5 November 1931. Edward Foster VC, who had been born in

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

, was present for the ceremony. The design involved a symmetrical frontage with eleven bays at the junction of Queen's Road and the Broadway; the outer bays projected forward slightly and incorporated huge

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 ...

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, while the central section of three bays featured a portico flanked by Doric order columns and

s on the ground 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 were square-headed windows in all the bays on the first floor with a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...

above. The complex originally included an assembly hall at the rear and a "Kinema" for showing

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

s; the complex was equipped with a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

made by

John Compton Sir John George Melvin Compton, (29 April 1925 – 7 September 2007) was a Saint Lucian politician who became the first prime minister upon independence in February 1979. Having led Saint Lucia under British rule from 1964 to 1979, Compton ser ...

allowing it to host a regular programme of concerts by the Wimbledon Symphony Orchestra. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, a civil defence control centre was installed in the basement and observation posts were placed on the roof. The town hall continued to be used as a public venue and concert performers included the

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

singer,

Kathleen Ferrier Kathleen Mary Ferrier (22 April 19128 October 1953) was an English contralto singer who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular ballads to the class ...

, who made an appearance on 25 April 1950. The building served as the headquarters of the

Municipal Borough of Wimbledon Wimbledon was a local government district in north-east Surrey from 1866 to 1965 covering the town of Wimbledon and its surrounding area. It was part of the London postal district and Metropolitan Police District. History Wimbledon Local Gover ...

for much of the 20th century and continued to serve as the local seat of government of the enlarged

London Borough of Merton The London Borough of Merton () is a London borough in London, England. The borough was formed under the London Government Act 1963 in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Mitcham, the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Merton ...

after it was formed in 1965. However, it became surplus to requirements after the council moved to Crown House in Morden in 1985. Following three planning inquiries, the assembly hall at the rear was demolished in the late 1980s, to make way for the Centre Court Shopping Centre. This left only the front range in place, which itself was converted for retail use to the designs of the Building Design Partnership in 1990. The groceries retailer,

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

, moved into the ground floor of former front range of the town hall while the clothing business, H&M, took the first floor a few years later.

References

{{reflist Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Merton City and town halls in London Government buildings completed in 1931 Grade II listed government buildings