Municipal building in London, England
The Old Town Hall is a former municipal building in the Mall in Ealing, London. The building, which is currently used as a branch of National Westminster Bank, is a Grade II listed building.[1]
History
The building was commissioned by the Ealing Local Board which was established in 1863.[2] The site the board selected, which was on the north side of The Mall, was just south of Ealing Station on the District Railway.[3]
The building was designed by the town surveyor, Charles Jones, in the Gothic Revival style, built in rubble masonry and was completed in 1874.[4][5] The design involved an asymmetric main frontage of six bays facing onto The Mall. The first bay on the left, which was slightly projected forward, featured a bay window on the ground floor, a tri-partite mullioned window on the first floor and a gable above. The third bay also contained a bay window on the ground floor. The fifth bay, which was also slightly projected forward, featured a three-stage tower; there was an arched doorway flanked by colonettes supporting an archivolt in the first stage, an arched window containing a quatrefoil in the second stage and a lancet window in the third stage, all surmounted by a mansard roof with dormers and brattishing. The right-hand bay contained a doorway surmounted by a panel inscribed with the word "Offices" and by another quatrefoil. The other bays were fenestrated by arched windows on the ground floor and by sash windows on the first floor.[6] Internally, the principal room was the board room, which was located behind the bay windows on the ground floor.[7]
The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, liked the design and referred to it as "more daring than most suburban municipal buildings of this date".[8][9]
However, with a decade, the building was considered too small for municipal use and a new town hall, also designed by Charles Jones, was completed on New Broadway in 1888.[10] The local board decided to dispose of the old town hall which was converted for use as a bank. It became the local branch of London and County Bank in 1889. It was then rebranded as London County and Westminster Bank in 1909,[11] Westminster Bank in 1923[12] and National Westminster Bank in 1970.[13][14]
References
