Externally, the design is simple. Only to the main entrance and High Street facade has embellishment been applied, as here it was felt that some expression of the borough should be given. Space is allocated to each of the five historic parishes which made up the former Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth, portraying historic scenes in stone bas reliefs running the length of the facade. The internal decoration is similarly restrained though the main entrance hall and staircase leading to the Council Chamber is paved with marble from southern Europe. The walls are lined with Algerian onyx in panels with Sarancolin plinths, bands and piers. All the public rooms are panelled with English brown oak and the floors paved with terrazzo tiles. The Town Hall building has over 140 rooms providing accommodation for about 700 staff. The forecourts to Wandsworth High Street and Fairfield Street are laid out as small gardens, which with the spacious entrance court and the surroundings to the Council Chamber enhance the appearance of the overall scheme.
Since the early 1980s, when the Wandsworth Town Conservation Area was designated, all alterations within the Town Hall have been designed to be in keeping with the original design and character of the building. The fact that the building has been maintained to such a high and sympathetic standard was recognised in June 1994 when the Secretary of State for National Heritage added the Town Hall to the statutory list of buildings of architectural or historic interest, grade II. You can view 360 degree tours of the Council Chamber, Marble Hall and gardens on our Register Office virtual tour.
Next is one of the Vikings who harried Wandles Farm and lost some of their weapons in the river flowing by it. Huguenot refugees stand before a mill on the stream. The mock mayor with crown recalls the frolics at Garrett in the eighteenth century. Soldiers returning from war are welcomed with tokens of victory and peace.
Behind is the Wandle Bridge, a factory, and two trucks of the old iron railway. A prelate with crozier and book suggests the middle ages. Then a Roman soldier and two more early inhabitants end the pageant of Wandsworth. Streatham Parish Roman soldiers march along the paved highway that gave a name to Streatham, the homestead near the road. Before them stand a man and boy, early inhabitants. To St. Leonard, the chained patron of prisoners, is dedicated Streatham Church. In it remains a monument of the knight riding off to follow the Black Prince. Three Martlets on bars are the arms on his sheild. Dr. Johnson takes tea at Streatham Place with his friends, Mrs. Thrale and Miss Burney. Behind him stand visitors come to drink the waters at the spa famed in the 18th century. Its pump is kept by a beadle. Next two figures recall the fight a century later to prevent the enclosure of the neighbouring commons, now grassy open spaces, where every summer the boys of Streatham play cricket. Clapham Parish Hunters have killed a stag near Cloppaham, the homestead on a hill. Osgod Clapa, Thegn to Cnut, accepts allegiance from a man of Clapham. Two saints represent the piety of Clapham and its religious zeal and fervour. Geoffrey de Mandeville, Norman Lord of the Manor, is shown in full armour. Book in hand stands the Puritan Rector, John Arthur, a learned theologian. A maidservernt waits upon the aged Pepys, who sits in his study with his books and one of his models of ships. Henry Cavendish computes the density of the earth. Wilberforce holds the Act ending the slave trade - by him is Macaulay, the historian. Behind them a coachman is driving a carriage and pair along the road to Kingston. Hood - the poet, as a schoolboy, sits dreaming under a tree. Putney Parish Behind them are the timbers of the old bridge, built in 1729, to replace the ancient ferry. An archer prepares for a shooting match on the heath. Oliver Cromwell sends two of his Ironsides from their camp at Putney to guard the captive King. Hobbes, the philosopher, often a guest at Roehampton, stands next; beyond him Gibbon, most famous of historians, revisits his birthplace, Putney. The watermill and the dyer show how the inhabitants worked along the neighbouring Wandle. Last come a youth and maiden with a coxswain going for a row near the new stone bridge. Balham and Tooting Parish Anselm, scholar and saint, once Archbishop of Canterbury, is shown as Abbot of Bec, a monastery in Normandy, depicted in the background. Attended by two monks he lifts his hand in blessing as a husbandman with two companions bring corn from the fields of Tooting Bec and Balham. Behind is the church erected in Norman times upon the second manor, afterwards Tooting Graveney, and rebuilt centuries later in 1822. The rider galloping forward represents the many pleasant pastimes enjoyed by all today upon the Tooting Commons. |
History of the Town Hall
As the photo from the late 1930's shows, the Town Hall today remains largely unchanged from then. In recent years significant investment has been made to maintain this prestigious building to a high standard. The Portland stone facades have been cleaned and the onyx wall cladding in the Marble Hall repointed and repolished. The Council Chamber and Marble Hall chandeliers, together with those in the public rooms were completely refurbished and the oak panelling stripped and polished. Floodlighting of the High Street elevation was installed in 2000 to mark the Millennium.
Wandsworth Parish
A dyer hard at work, an engineer, two smiths, a woman carrying fruit, a brewer pouring out beer, and a weaver with a shuttle, represent local industries.