# Hampton Wick Local Board Office

The Former Hampton Wick Local Board Office, also known as The Old Library or 45A High Street, is the former office of the Local Board and, later, of the Urban District Council of Hampton Wick in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is a Grade II listed building which currently serves as private housing.

## History

The Hampton Wick Local Board was established in 1863, the year inscribed on the building, following the ratification of the Local Government Act 1858 by Sir Thomas James Nelson JP, Solicitor to the City of London and the Board's chairman. Nelson's principal justification for the adoption of the act was to prevent the Parish from being included in a highway district as per The Highways Act 1862. The erection of the local board office ensued in 1884 under the care of local architect Richard T. Elsam.
The Local Board was supplanted by an Urban District Council in 1894, which was absorbed by the Municipal Borough of Twickenham in 1937. The building was later converted into a public library and, in the 1960s, received two apartments. By late 1970, the library was transferred over to a new building on Bennet Close, and the building was converted back into an office.
In 2013, the building gained a Historic England Grade II listing after a "passionate local campaign". It was converted into an apartment building with 4 units in 2016.

## Architecture

The building was designed by Richard T. Elsam in 1884 in the Jacobean style. The façade is clad in terracotta and the roof is made of slate tiles.
The building is separated from the pavement by a small sunken courtyard enclosed by a balustrade. A sweep of new concrete steps leads to the entrance located within a semicircular arch. The arch springs from imposts within a pair of Composite pilasters with grotesques sculpted onto the capitals. The capitals support a broken architrave which reads "HAMPTON WICK U.D.C.", and the break above the keystone reads "1863", commemorating the establishment of the Hampton Wick Local Board. An egg-and-tongue ovolo runs across the façade above the architrave, surmounted by a cornice made up of a corona, an ovolo, and a filet. The egg-and-tongue ovolo breaks forward to align with the breaks of the architrave beneath it.
The first floor is made up of four Doric banded pilasters - the latter two of which align with those of the entrance to form a superimposed order - which divide the façade into three bays. The central bay comprises a three-light mullion and transom window with a leaded upper light, and the bays on either side comprise similar two-light windows. The pilasters rest upon pedestals which separate sculpted friezes and support another cornice.
The second floor has a similar arrangement to the first floor absent the sculpted friezes, and the pilasters feature carved shafts. It is also noticeably shorter, and the windows are fully leaded. A series of modillions project beneath the cornice which features an additional corona compared to the cornices below.
The façade is topped with a Dutch gable with obelisks on either side. The gable features a roundel with a stag and crown, the seal of the local board designed by Sir Thomas James Nelson. The pediment at the top features a festoon and is crowned by another obelisk.

## Gallery

* The plaque.
* The architrave.
* The roundel with the stag and crown, the seal of the local board.