Sutton Civic Offices

The old municipal offices with the unusual octagon corner tower and turret on the roof

The current civic offices were commissioned to replace the old municipal offices at the corner of Throwley Road and the High Street which had been designed in the Baroque style and completed in 1902.[1][2] The old municipal offices had been established as the offices of the Sutton Urban District Council and went on to become the headquarters of the Municipal Borough of Sutton and Cheam in 1934.[3] They continued to be the local seat of government when the enlarged London Borough of Sutton was formed in 1965[4] but, having been assessed as uneconomic to maintain, were demolished in 1971.[1]

In the 1960s civic leaders had decided to procure new civic offices: the site they selected was occupied by three large private houses.[5] They decided that the new civic offices, which would take over the role of headquarters of the London Borough of Sutton, would form part of a larger complex involving the civic offices to the south, a public library to the west and Sutton College to the north.[6] It was also intended to have a separate building for the council chamber but this was never built for financial reasons.[7]

The new building, which was designed by the assistant borough architect, Charles Sierakowski,[lower-alpha 1] in the modernist style, was completed in phases between 1972 and 1975.[9][10][lower-alpha 2]

The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage onto St Nicholas Way with a canopied glass entrance to the civic offices and to the public library on the left, and a canopied glass entrance to the college on the right: there were continuous rows of glazing with brickwork above and below on the first, second and third floors throughout the complex.[13] In the absence of a purpose-built council chamber, a multi-purpose area within the public library known as the "Europa Gallery" was designated as available for use by the borough council for their meetings.[14][15]