Hornsey Town Hall

Hornsey Town Hall, opened on 4 November 1935, was the first town hall in Britain to be modelled on Willem Dudock's seminal town hall in the Netherlands at Hilversum. The design competition was assessed by C. Cowles Voysey and won by architect Reginald Uren. Built of handmade brick of pinkish colour with stone dressings, Hornsey Town Hall has an L-shaped front with 7 bays facing the courtyard, 6 narrower bays on right inner return with a set back attic floor and a tall rectangular tower. The main block has long first floor windows with bronze bars and guards and a bronze balcony to 3 central windows. Below, a wide triple entrance with rusticated brickwork is flanked by plain windows. The tower has a large door with carved stone surround below a copper-grilled window with bronze hood. Blank walls, with raised brick strips, rise to top stage where stone hoods crown 5 and 4 slit windows. A bowed, cantilevered first floor projects at the North end. At the rear there are round-cornered canopies to entrances flanking the stair tower which has curved full-height window with glazing bars and oversailing flat roof. Uren incorporated a council chamber, committee rooms and administrative offices in his design along with a multi-purpose hall with seating for 800 to 1,000 people, complete with upper gallery. Much of the interior decoration has been preserved. The building was vacated in 2003 and a voluntary group, the Town Hall Community Partnership Board(CPB), was formed in 2005 to oversee the redevelopment of the site. In 2007 the Hornsey Town Hall Creative Trust was formed as a charitable company with directors and trustees made up of the members of the CPB to promote the regeneration of the building. An initial development brief was drafted in 2009 by John McAslan & Partners to include restoration and theatre use. Later Bennetts Associates prepared preliminary proposals to convert the building into a new drama school for Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Despite an initial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop these plans, it was announced in January 2015 that Mountview and new architects Purcell were withdrawing because of the challenges of converting the Grade II* listed building. The HTHCT is currently carrying out a consultation on community use and access. During 2015, parts of the Town Hall are being operated on an interim basis by arts group ANA as the Hornsey Town Hall Arts Centre. Their programme of events ranges from art exhibitions to theatre and cultural activities. The venue now consists of the Main Hall with a maximum capacity of 1200 served by a purpose built bar, original 1930’s toilets and both ladies and gents cloakrooms. The Committee Rooms still have 1930’s French polished walnut wall panels and sliding wall dividers, an original parquet floor and floor to ceiling windows. The Council Chamber is a crescentiform French-polished panelled room with good acoustics and a capacity of 100. The art deco foyer and grand staircase still have nickel plated doors while the Supper Room has a bar and portable stage. In August 2008 Hornsey Town Hall was designated an "Asset of Community Value".