Walworth Town Hall

In the late 1850s the Vestry Board of St Mary, Newington met in the Infant School Room in Queen's Head Row as well as in a room in the local parish church.[2] After civic leaders found this arrangement was inadequate, they decided to procure a purpose-built vestry hall: the site selected on Walworth Road had previously been open land owned by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers.[2][3]

The new building, which was designed by Henry Jarvis in the Italianate style and built Piper and Wheeler, was officially opened on 8 August 1865.[2] The building was financed by a loan from Edward Chambers Nicholson, a wealthy chemist who had settled locally in his retirement.[4][2] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto Walworth Road; the central section featured a round-arched stone doorway flanked by Corinthian order columns; there was a triple round-arched window above on the first floor.[1] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber on the first floor.[2]

After the Newington Public Library had been built to the south east of the town hall in 1892, an infill extension was added between the two buildings in 1893.[5] The town hall became the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark and was renamed "Southwark Town Hall" in 1900.[6] It was extended along Wansey street to provide further accommodation in 1902.[5]

The building ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged London Borough of Southwark was formed in 1965.[7] It was subsequently used as workspace by the council, becoming known as "Walworth Town Hall", and was also used as the local registrar's office.[2] The Cuming Museum, which had been based at the back of the Newington Public Library, moved into the town hall in 2006.[8]

The roof of the building was badly damaged by a fire in March 2013[9] and the building was subsequently added to the Heritage at Risk Register.[10] In March 2018, the council announced that the building would be restored and appointed Feix & Merlin as architects[11] and General Projects as the developer for works.[12] Proposals for the restoration works, which included educational activities, creative workshops and studio spaces,[13] were submitted for planning consent in June 2020.[14]