Hendon Town Hall

Hendon Town hall is a municipal building in the Burroughs, Hendon, London. It is a Grade II listed building.[1]

Hendon Town Hall
Hendon Town Hall
LocationHendon
Coordinates51.5883°N 0.2292°W / 51.5883; -0.2292
Built1901
ArchitectThomas Henry Watson
Architectural style(s)Pre-Renaissance style
Listed Building – Grade II
Designated7 April 1983
Reference no.1294762
Shown in Barnet

History

In the late 19th century the local board of health had held its meetings at the Hendon Union Workhouse in the Burroughs.[2] After the formation of Hendon Urban District in 1896, civic leaders decided this arrangement was inadequate for their needs and decided to procure purpose-built municipal buildings: the site selected for the new facility in the Burroughs had previously been part of the Grove House estate.[3]

The foundation stone for the new municipal buildings was laid the chairman of the council, John Evans, in 1900.[2] The new building, which was designed by Thomas Henry Watson in the Pre-Renaissance style and was built by Kingerlee and Sons,[4] was officially opened by the then chairman of the council, F.W. Roper, on 13 November 1901.[2] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the Burroughs; the central section featured a porte-cochère flanked by Doric order columns on the ground floor; there were three mullion windows flanked by oriel windows on the first floor; on the roof a timber lantern with a weather vane was erected.[1] The principal room was the council chamber on the first floor.[2]

After the area was given municipal borough status as the Municipal Borough of Hendon, the building became known as "Hendon Town Hall" in 1932.[5] It continued to be the local seat of government after the borough was merged with the Municipal Borough of Finchley and several urban districts to form the London Borough of Barnet in 1965.[6]

Margaret Thatcher made her first speech as Prime Minister at the town hall in May 1979[7] and she returned to unveil a statue entitled the Family of Man by Itzhak Ofer in 1981.[8] Finchley had never had its own town hall[9] and Hendon Town Hall was sometimes, incorrectly, referred to by members of the press as "Finchley Town Hall" in the 1980s.[10][11]

Barnet Trades Union Council, which had been dissolved during the deindustrialisation of the early 1990s, was reformed at the town hall in 2008.[12] The Barnet register office, which had been based at Burnt Oak in Edgware, moved to the town hall in February 2017.[13] Many of the other council officers and their departments, who had previously been located at disparate locations around the council area, moved to Barnet House in Colindale, just over a mile to the west of the town hall, in 2018.[14] However, meetings of the full council have continued to be held at Hendon Town Hall.[15]

References
  1. Historic England. "Hendon Town Hall, Barnet (1294762)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  2. "London's Town Halls". Historic England. p. 11. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  3. "Ordnance Survey Map". 1894. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  4. "Kingerlee Ltd: celebrating 150 years of craftsmanship in construction: 1868-2018" (PDF). Kingerlee Ltd. p. 35. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  5. "Civic Heraldry of England and Wales-Middlesex (Obsolete)". Civic Heraldry of England and Wales. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
  6. "Local Government Act 1963". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  7. "Speech on being reelected MP for Finchley". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. 4 May 1979. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  8. "Remarks visiting Finchley". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. 24 July 1981. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  9. Historic England. "Grandstand at Summers Lane sports ground (1416297)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  10. "Hendon Grove". London Gardens Trust. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  11. "Not always a happy match". JC. 22 June 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  12. "Barnet Trade Unions Council proposes to unite with anti fascism movement against the BNP". Hendon and Finchley Times. 29 March 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  13. "Couples can marry at Hendon town hall in the Burroughs as Barnet register office relocates". Hendon & Finchley, Barnet & Potters Bar, Edgeware & Mill Hill Times. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  14. "Union protesters angry as Barnet Council votes in favour of moving offices to Colindale in £50 million regeneration project". Hendon and Finchley Times. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  15. "Barnet Council to hold virtual meetings". Hendon and Finchley Times. 7 April 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
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