The building stands almost alone and
looks as though it is an almost forgotten piece of history. It has a layer of
grime, probably from the heavy traffic that uses the main road that passes close
to the front doors.
The Limehouse Town Hall Consortium
Trust website (visit link)
gives a brief history of the building:
"History
Limehouse Town Hall is a former
town hall building on Commercial Road, in Limehouse, in the London Borough of
Tower Hamlets.
Limehouse Town Hall was built in
1879, designed by A. & C. Harston, as the vestry hall of the Limehouse
District. The building consists of a number of offices, below a 'grand' assembly
room. In 1900, the civil parish became a part of the Metropolitan Borough of
Stepney. In 1965, this in turn, became part of the London Borough of Tower
Hamlets, this then became one of a number of surplus town halls — along with
Poplar Town Hall and St George's Town Hall.
On 30 July 1909 the Chancellor of
the Exchequer David Lloyd George made a polemical speech in the assembly room,
attacking the House of Lords for its opposition to his "People's Budget". This
speech was the origin of the phrase "To Limehouse", or "Limehousing", which
meant an incendiary political speech.[1]
The building has seen a variety of
uses since, including serving as the National Museum of Labour History; and a
brief return to council administration, as the Wapping Neighbourhood Offices. It
was given protection as a Grade II listed building in 1973,[2] but was placed on
English Heritage's list of buildings at risk in 2003. In October 2006 the
building was given a restoration grant by English Heritage, and is in the
process of being renovated as a centre for arts and culture, in particular local
history projects.
The Limehouse Town Hall Consortium
Trust has a long lease on the building from the local authority, Tower Hamlets,
and is working to fully restore the Town Hall as a vibrant space for community,
enterprise and heritage. Various charities, artists and small creative
businesses currently operate from the building, including Boxing Club, Primal
Pictures, Stitches in Time and the Limehouse Project.
Within These Walls - The Story
of the Limehouse Town Hall
In March 2011 the Limehouse Town
Hall Consortium Trust presented an exhibition on the history of Limehouse Town
Hall, researched by architectural historian Kathy Clark. The exhibition offered
the visitor some fascinating glimpses of the past life of the building and its
place in the local social fabric, as well as a rare chance to see inside the
Town Hall itself, which currently is not normally open to the general
public.
We have now transferred key aspects
of the exhibition into a document- even if you did not have the opportunity to
visit the exhibition, you can now view much of it by opening the PDF attached
below.
The exhibition explores the life of
the building from when it was erected as a vestry hall in 1879-81, and alongside
it some key aspects of the history of Limehouse and its people. It gives
insights into the architecture itself, and how this neoclassical survivor of the
blitz has changed over time, as well as many diverse uses of the building,
ranging from welfare centre, to museum, to bustling hub for entertainment of all
kinds.
It also explores the particular
link of the hall and the local area with the labour movement. The exhibition is
based around contemporary and modern photographs, plans and
newspaper cuttings that paint a
richer picture of the building’s history than has previously been available, and
forms part of a project to expand that picture with the help of local people,
who are
invited to contribute their
memories of the Hall to the Trust’s developing timeline of the building. The
Trust would be very interested to hear from you about your memories and accounts
of how you may have used the Town Hall in the past- please do contact us with
any information you may have!"
The PDF, mentioned in the extract
above, can be viewed in full here.
It gives a more detailed history of the building.
The Town Hall is a Grade II listed
building and its entry, at the English Heritage website (visit
link), reads:
"COMMERCIAL ROAD E14 1. 4431 (South
Side) Limehouse Town Hall TQ 3681 17/620 II GV 2. 1879. White brick with white
stone dressings. Parapet has central pediment with cartouche. Rusticated quoins
to ground floor. 2 storeys, 5 windows, casements and sashes with arohivolts.
Balustrades to 1st floor windows and over shallow porch which has paired pillars
with composite capitals.
The Garden Wall to former St Anne's
Rectory, Limehouse Town Hall, St Anne's Parish Church, Chuchyard Wall, Railings,
Gates, Gate Piers and War Memorial form a group with No 2 and Nos 11 to 23 (odd)
Newell Street and the Limehouse Church Institute, Three Colt
Street."