page_title: Battersea Town Hall
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Battersea Town Hall / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Front elevation of Batterea Town Hal aka 'New Parochial Offices, Battersea'
context_page_description: Battersea Town Hall, originally the New Parochial Offices, Battersea, is a Grade II* listed municipal building in Battersea, south London, designed by Edward Mountford and erected between 1891 and 1893 by the Battersea vestry to provide public halls and office space for its staff. The building served for 72 years as the hub of municipal Battersea until the centre of local government was moved to neighbouring Wandsworth in 1965, after which it transitioned to use as a community and arts centre, latterly known as the Battersea Arts Centre.
context_section_description: The town hall is built on a sloping site falling northwards from a 160 foot (49 m) frontage on Lavender Hill. The building extends 293 feet (89 m) northwards, divided into two essential parts; a front 2-storey municipal building with council chamber and offices; and at the rear a series of public halls. The building is offset to the west of the site, Mountford electing to build a 40 feet (12 m) wide road to the east of the building to provide easy access to the public halls.
  In a communication to The Builder, Mountford described the design intention as "essentially English Renaissance, though perhaps treated somewhat freely", and set out a series of principles for the building:
  The good approaches to all parts of the building, especially the public hall
  The corridors are wide and well lighted from the central court, while the principle staircase and entrance are lighted from above
  The compactness and convenient arrangement of offices for various parish purposes
  The prominent position assigned to the council chamber and the accompanying committee rooms and member's library
  The means of completely disconnecting the public hall and its accessories from the other parts of the building, when let out for bazaars and other purposes
  The thoroughly well lighting of every part of the building.
  To the functional layout of the building, Mountford introduced what were for him was a signature feature: the blending of the architectural with sculpture and painting. Woodwork panelling, floors and dado rails are of oak; highly decorative ceilings and friezes in the council chamber and the grand hall of fibrous plaster were provided by  Gilbert Seale of Camberwell. Floors feature mosaics with emblematic bees, signifiers of the industry of the parish, by Rust's Vitreous Mosaic Company of Battersea. Relief sculptures by Horace and Paul Montford adorn pediments at the front and side of the building; to the east, Labour and Progress; to the west, Art and Literature, and in the centre, Justice and Prudence flank the crest and arms of the Parish, and Authority and Relaxation (alternatively called Government and Entertainment) feature to either side of the first-floor central window, personifications of the twin purposes of the building. Putti (cherubs) feature on the main entrance spandrels and the lunettes of windows and doors. An elaborate curved frieze featuring cartouches, swags and more putti adorn the staircases - themselves in Devonshire and Sicilian marble. The glass dome above the octagonal hall features a garden-pattern in shades of yellow.
  Mountford's design provided a symmetrical 112 feet (34 m) building frontage in Monks Park (Bath) stone and red Suffolk bricks, having 5 central bays including a semi-circular Ionic portico, and single bay pavilions with curved-corners to left and right. At the front, upper windows are in a Venetian style, whilst the lower windows have rusticated or Gibbs surrounds. The building has hipped roofs, originally of Westmoreland slate, incorporating turrets of oak covered with copper and surmounted by wrought iron.
  Within the ceremonial front block of the hall, an imperial staircase rises to a gallery on three sides; the council chambers and a public viewing area, a committee room and members' library occupy the front of the first-floor space, and a series of offices are provided along the east and west of the ground-floor of the block. A small courtyard serves as a light-well.
  To the rear of the main block, proceeding down the hill, are three halls: the main Grand Hall, beneath which is a smaller Lower Hall, with a glass-domed Octagonal Hall linking these to the front municipal block. The Grand Hall is a 4,000 cubic metres (140,000 cu ft) space with an arched ceiling rising to 10.5 meters (34 ft) height, adorned with decorative plasterwork and ventilation grilles. At the northern end, a platform stage is fronted by a highly decorated proscenium. Wide corridors run along the east and west of the hall, above which are large arched windows providing the hall with ample daylight.
caption: New Parochial Offices, Battersea - illustration from The Builder, 1891
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