| Summary : This municipal complex comprises a 1930s public hall, with attached council offices, built in two phases between 1958 and 1963, and a 1970s extension housing the council chamber and other civic spaces. However, the earliest municipal building on this site was a vestry hall erected in 1874-5 in a Gothic Revivial style to the designs of George Elkington. This building was enlarged in 1899-1901, probably in anticipation of local government reforms, and renamed Lewisham Town Hall. Following a competition a steel-framed extension clad in Portland stone was added, designed by Arthur John Hope of Bradshaw Gass & Hope, to house a theatre, offices and shops. This was treated in a broadly contemporary manner but with Gothic detailing to match the Victorian Town Hall. From 1949 a phased expansion and partial redevelopment of the site was under consideration, under the direction of the Borough Architect M H Forward. The first and second phases, a curved block of offices, went up in 1958-9 and 1961-3. The third phase, completed between 1968 and 1971, was the Civic Suite - housing the council chamber, committee rooms and mayors parlour - completed under Forward's successor, A Sutton. This was built on the site of the original vestry hall. |