Poplar Town Hall | |
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![]() The new Poplar Town Hall (2007) | |
Location | Bow Road, Poplar |
Coordinates | 51°31′42″N 0°01′11″W / 51.5284°N 0.0198°W |
Built | 1938 |
Architect | Culpin and Son |
Architectural style(s) | Modernist style |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
Designated | 24 February 2009 |
Reference no. | 1393151 |
Poplar Town Hall is a municipal building at the corner of Bow Road and Fairfield Road in Poplar, London. It is a Grade II listed building.[1]
The building was commissioned to replace an aging municipal building, still located 1.7 miles (2.7 km) due south on Poplar High Street, with a distinctive octagonal tower and dome and mosaic detail.[2][3] Built in 1870, the now Grade II listed building had become the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in 1900.[4]
The original building had been the scene of the Poplar Rates Rebellion, led by George Lansbury, which resulted in 19 councilors being put in prison in 1921.[5] The council sold the old town hall to a developer in 2011 and it was subsequently converted into a hotel.[5][6][7]
In the 1930s, civic leaders decided the building was inadequate for their needs and that they would procure a new town hall: the site chosen for the new building had been occupied by a 19th century vestry hall.[4] The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the former mayor, Alderman Charles Key, on 8 May 1937.[8] It was designed by Culpin and Son in the Modernist style in a shape that took the form of a trapezoid.[1] The design involved a rounded frontage at the junction of Bow Road and Fairfield Road; there were layers of continuous stone facing panels above and below a continuous band of glazing on the first, second and third floors.[4] The Builders, a frieze by sculptor David Evans on the face of the building, was unveiled by Lansbury at the official opening of the building on 10 December 1938.[1] Made of Portland stone panels, it commemorated the trades constructing the town hall and symbolised the borough's relationship with the River Thames and the youth of Poplar.[9] The principal rooms were the council chamber, the mayor's parlour and an assembly hall which benefited from a sprung Canadian maple dance floor.[10]
The building was proclaimed by the council to be the first town hall to be erected in the modernist style[4] but ceased to function as the local seat of government when the enlarged London Borough of Tower Hamlets was formed in 1965.[11]
After being used as workspace by the council until the mid-1980s, the town hall was sold in the 1990s to a developer who added a roof extension and converted it for commercial use.[10] It was subsequently used as a business centre.[4]