Deptford Town Hall

Deptford Town Hall is a municipal building in New Cross Road, Deptford, London. It is a Grade II listed building.[1]

Deptford Town Hall
Deptford Town Hall
LocationNew Cross Road, Deptford
Coordinates51.4753°N 0.0377°W / 51.4753; -0.0377
Built1905
ArchitectHenry Vaughan Lanchester, James Stewart and Edwin Alfred Rickards
Architectural style(s)Baroque style
Listed Building – Grade II
Designated5 July 1950
Reference no.1193691
Shown in Lewisham

History

The building was commissioned to replace the aging vestry hall of St Paul's.[2] The site selected had previously been occupied by a row of residential properties with public baths behind.[3]

The new building was designed by Henry Vaughan Lanchester, James Stewart and Edwin Alfred Rickards in the Baroque style and built by Holloway Brothers; it was officially opened by the mayor, Councillor Joseph Pyne, on 19 July 1905.[4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto New Cross Road; the central section featured a round arched doorway flanked by figures of Tritons as corbels on the ground floor; there was an oriel window on the first floor with a carved relief of a ship's prow and a pediment containing a tympanum depicting a naval battle above that.[1] Statues of four naval figures, Sir Francis Drake, Robert Blake, Horatio Nelson and an unnamed contemporary admiral, were designed by Henry Poole,[5] and erected on the front of the building at first floor level.[2] A clock tower with a weather vane in the shape of a galleon was erected at roof level.[6][7] Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the mayor's chamber on the first floor.[1]

During the First World War, the town hall was infamous for holding all its trials of conscientious objectors in secret.[8] This controversial practice was more recently explored in the film, Devils on Horseback, released in 2018.[9][10]

In the bombing of the Second World War, a V-2 rocket destroyed a Woolworths store on the opposite side of the street killing 160 people in the shop with the blast superficially damaging the town hall itself.[11][12]

The building was established as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged London Borough of Lewisham was formed in 1965.[13] It was used as a workspace for some council departments until it was acquired by Goldsmiths College in 2000.[6]

References
  1. Historic England. "Deptford Town Hall, Lewisham (1193691)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  2. "London's Town Halls". Historic England. p. 148. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  3. "Ordnance Survey Map". 1899. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  4. "Souvenir of the opening of the Town Hall". Deptford Borough Council. 19 July 1905. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  5. McKenzie, Raymond (1 December 2001). Public sculpture of Glasgow. ISBN 978-0-85323-937-6. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
  6. "Historic spaces". Goldsmiths, University of London. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  7. "Deptford Town Hall, sculptural decoration by Henry Poole". Bob Speel. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  8. "Secret justice leaves a corrupt and damaging legacy". The Conversation. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  9. "Devils on Horseback (2018)". IMDB. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  10. "Conscientious Objectors on trial – the lessons of history". London Multimedia News. 18 May 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  11. "FlyingBombsandRockets,V1,V2,Rockets,Flying bombs". www.flyingbombsandrockets.com. Archived from the original on 14 December 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
  12. "WAR: New Cross remembers V2 bombing". News Shopper. 6 December 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  13. "Local Government Act 1963". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
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