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Holborn Town Hall

The Metropolitan Borough of Holborn was the smallest borough of London both in geography and population so perhaps it’s not surprising that its town hall was a pretty but rather humble affair. The civic pride and municipal pomposity for which this realm was once renowned are nowhere on show in this handsome building which, but for a few details, could easily be mistaken for a hotel, office building, or private residences.

Holborn Town Hall was built in stages, with the public library on the left-hand side completed in 1894 by the Holborn District Board of Works to a design by Isaacs. With the erection of the borough in 1900, a town hall was needed, and the central and right-hand sections of the building were added between 1906 and 1908 by the architects Hall & Warwick.

In 1965 the borough was merged with St Pancras to form the new London Borough of Camden. It was decided to consolidate the civic government at St Pancras Town Hall, to which the local government union members objected. To placate their ire, a bar for the use of employees was erected atop the annexe being added to the Camden (ex St Pancras) Town Hall — quickly nicknamed ‘the White Elephant bar’.

Though long sold off and converted into office space, the arms of the old borough of Holborn still grace the first floor balcony.

Published at 2:15 pm on Friday 28 September 2018. Categories: Architecture Great Britain Tags: , , .
Comments

Like everything else from before 1914, so much better than what came after.
The happy faces one sees in newsreels of the period were extinguished, and gladness went out of the world, and was replaced with ugliness, and hardness of heart.

— LGClark 28 Sep 2018 7:15 pm

Humble? Taken without reference to other buildings, it looks rather splendid and grand.

— Joseph A Franceski 11 Jan 2019 3:42 pm

Just after the Second World War my brother an I stayed in a flat at the top of the Town Hall. With a couple Mr & Mrs Coote. During the War my father, who was in the home guard in London stayed with them when he was on duty. So when I go to Holborn now and again. It always reminds me of those times.

— Trevor John Heath 7 Nov 2021 2:10 pm
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