Woolwich Town Hall: A Study in Grandeur

Woolwich Town Hall A Study of Grandeur

Dante Hall Design History (AR6040A) The London School of Architecture 3782 words

Contents

1

Introduction

2

Context 2.1 2.2

Formation of the Borough Planning & Tender

3

A New Decade, A New Style (Part I)

4

External Grandeur 4.1 4.2 4.3

5

Order Movement Tectonics

Internal Grandeur 5.1 5.2

Layout Stained Glass

6

A New Decade, A New Style (Part II)

7

Conclusion Bibliography, References and Appendix

0 Introduction Woolwich has one of London’s grandest town halls. Built in a largely English version of Edwardian Baroque style in 1903-06 and opened by Will Crooks, the local labour MP. Encompassing offices, meeting rooms, a council chamber and a public hall to the designs of Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas. Its grandeur reflected the growing municipal authority in Woolwich, brought in by the London Government Act of 1899, as well as national prosperity and ambition.

The architect appointed to design Woolwich Town Hall was Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas, who was a leading advocate of the Baroque Revival in England. He was responsible for a number of other buildings, including Stockport Town Hall, (1905) and Belfast City Hall (1906) - which were, like Woolwich, characterised by their intricate exterior columns, interior grandeur and bespoke stained glass windows.

This case study evaluates the importance of the Baroque’s grand resurgence in Edwardian London (1901-1910). Through a detailed analysis of Woolwich Town Hall, the study aims to examine the meaning of Baroque and how it was interpreted by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas.

Classifying the building in relation to early English Baroque, from the work of Wren and Hawksmoor, and to its origin in 17th Century Europe.

Fig. 1 Postcard from the 1920s of Woolwich Town Hall

Fig. 2 Professional Photograph of the Entrance Hall

1 Context 1.1 Formation of the Borough Thomas’s appointment arose from an earlier competition success in 1899 to build new municipal offices, a public hall and a library for the Plumstead Commissioners for Public Libraries. However, this appointment was cut short when the Plumstead Vestry, along with ten other smaller bodies, merged to form the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich in 1900. Thomas offered to forego £500 if he was given the job for the Woolwich Town Hall, which was financially favourable for the council: “great expense would be incurred in having a fresh competition and much time lost thereby”.1 Following this re-appointment, Thomas produced alternative drawings for Woolwich Town Hall in Spring 1902 incorporating municipal offices and a public hall.

Originally, the Woolwich Town Commissioners built a smaller town hall (1842) at the corner of Calderwood Street and next to the Woolwich Polytechnic, only for it to be sold to the Metropolitan Police Commissioners and opened as a police court that same year. With the Town Commissioners offices temporarily rehoused in the vestry rooms of the parish church, the limitation of municipal offices made its replacement urgent. With the formation of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, this municipal area became a much larger precinct. The opportunity for a grand new town hall was grasped with alacrity and extravagance.2 The vision being that it would give Woolwich Borough Council a stronger civic influence in London. The grandeur of a Baroque town hall in contrast to its modestly classical Victorian surroundings illustrated the change in status of local government and a move towards a more self-conscious civic pride in a city that was becoming more prosperous.

Woolwich Borough Council Mins, 6 March 1902, accessed via UCL archive on 19th December 2019.

2 Saint, A. & Guillery, P., Survey of London Volume 48: Woolwich, London, English Heritage, 2012. p.254.

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Fig. 3 Map from Digimaps, in the 1910s, of the Wellington Street Area

Wellington Street Area 1910

A. Old Town Hall B. Public Library C. Police Station D. Magistrates Court 1 Front Entrance 2 Side Entrance

1.2 Planning & Construction In 1902, Thomas submitted to planning two alternate schemes, one design had a singular entrance on Wellington Street and the second designs had a secondary entrance on Market Street - the latter allowed for the option of a phased development and, subsequently, was the proposal that was approved by the planning authority. When the project went to tender later that year, J. E. Johnson and Sons based in Leicester won the job over 12 other competitors, but only for the first phase of development - which included the construction of the grand entrance hall, municipal offices, meeting rooms and council chamber, but without the public hall.

When construction began in November 1903, Woolwich was under a prolonged period of Labour control, and the Municipal Buildings Committee that presided over the process housed a strong Labour representation. As such, the committee strongly supported the construction of the grand new town hall, and proved to be helpful in gaining planning approval quickly, or in settling disputes over workmanship.

J. E. Johnson, however, proved to be less helpful causing multiple delays to construction by persistent late deliveries of Portland stone, and a tendency to illegally subcontract work to contractors in Leicester. In fear of the construction quality not matching design, Thomas won two enquiries against J. E. Johnson. The first, to the use of a brick that was cheaper than what had been specified.

The second, over cement had been contaminated with plaster of Paris in two places. All of which saw the project fall behind schedule by half a year. Despite these minor disputes, however, Thomas admitted that the two and a half years of construction had gone relatively smoothly.

Woolwich Town Hall was completed in late 1905.

Gallery

Mayor’s Reception Room Council Chamber Ante-room

Gallery

Suite of Committee Rooms

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WC Collectors

Rates Dept

Chief Clerk

Gallery

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Typing

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TC Mayor’s Room

First Floor Plan Fig. 4 Ground Floor Plan, drawn by the author, as originally designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas

Fig. 5 First Floor Plan, drawn by the author, as originally designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas

BA Public Hall

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Typing

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Ladies Retiring Gent’s Retiring Ladies Cloaks

Market Street Entrance

Gent’s Cloaks

Town Clerk Rates Office

Wellington Street Entrance

Entrance Hall

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Ground Floor Plan BA Borough Accountant’s Department BE Borough Engineer’s Department EE Electrical Engineers MH Medical Officer of Health’s Department TC Town Clerk’s Department

Later phase of development

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3 New Decade, New Style (Part I) The years between 1890 and 1914 saw one of the most accelerated periods of construction of town halls in London’s history. Fifteen of the nineteen town halls (see fig 6) built during this period were built in Baroque style.3 The sudden resurgence of Baroque was, perhaps, a move to consolidate its position as the ‘centre of the greatest and most powerful Empire’.4 It was a time, rare in England, when Londoners craved an expression of the grand and formal,5 but why was Baroque seen as a suitable style?

Perhaps the most important thing to consider is that the styles of Wren and Hawksmoor - exponents of English Baroque - were seen as English. Around the turn of the century, nationalism, or a nationalist spirit, was affecting the architecture not only of London, but the rest of Europe. National feeling and civic pride were very strong in Britain, especially because of a growing consciousness of empire.6 The English Baroque buildings of the 17th and 18th century “were of a splendour that seemed appropriate for the centre of a great empire”.7 For Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas, the baroque style was polite, proud and reticent: English virtues, suitable for a proud new town hall.

For Thomas, the Baroque was a grand style for a grand nation, and one that would displace the tradition of the moment; the Neoclassical-Italianate/Gothic Revival styles of town hall that had been so dominant in the century before.

Most notably, since the flurry of Edwardian Baroque town halls, between 1890 and 1914, London has since seen a gradual decline in the number of new town halls (see figure), and most definitely a decline in the budget for new town halls.8

1850

1860

1870

1880

Vernacular

Neo-Classical

Gothic Revival

Modern English Renaissance

St Mary's Newington Vestry Hall 1856 Lambeth Old Town Hall 1855

Wandsworth Town Hall 1880-82 Chiswick Limeho Islington Shoreditch Town Hall Town H Vestry Hall Town Hall 1876 1881 1858-59 1866-87 Kensington Old Town Hall ITALIANATE 1880 St George Southwark Bermondsey in the East Town Hall Old Vestry Hall Vestry Hall 1872-73 1878-82 1860 Bromley Public Hall 1879 Acton Local West Ham Board Office Town Hall 1870-71 1860 Anerley Hackney Old Town Hall Town Hall 1876-79 1864-66

Edm Tow 18

Holborn Old Town Hall 1878-79 Westminster Town Hall 1881-83

Neo-Georgian

Baroque Revival

St Mary's Newington Vestry Hall 1856

Modernist English Heritage, London’s Town Halls: The architecture of local government from 1840 to the present, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1999.

4 Stamp, G., London 1900, London, Architectural Design, 1978, p.305.

5 ibid, p.305.

6 ibid, p.305.

7 Service, A., Edwardian Architecture and its Origins, London, Architectural Press, 1975, p.141 8 English Heritage, London’s Town Halls: The architecture of local government from 1840 to the present, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1999.

3

Postmodernist

Fig. 6 LONDON TOWN HALLS (1850-2000) Designed See Appendix - classification of style and record of town ha

1890

1900

1920

1930

1940

1950

1960

1970

1980

1990

Hillingdon Civic Centre 1973-78

Camden Town Hall & Extension 1935-37

ouse Hall 1

Southall Town Hall 1897-98 Hammersmith Old Town Hall 1896-97

monton wn Hall 884-85

r

1910

Islington Hammersmith Town Hall Town Hall 1930 Hackney 1938-39 Town Hall 1934-37 Chingford Walthamstow Municipal Town Hall Offices 1937 1929

Lewisham Civic Centre 1958-63

Crayford Town Hall 1915

Ealing Town Hall 1888-89

Fulham Town Hall 1888-90 Redbridge Town Hall 1899-1901

Finsbury Town Hall 1894-95

Battersea Town Hall 1982-83

Stoke Newington Municipal Offices 1934-37

Richmond Town Hall 1890

Hendon Town Hall 1901 Lambeth East Ham Town Hall Town Hall 1906-08 1901 Acton Rotherhithe Town Hall Old Town Hall 1909-10 1895-97 Chelsea Hampstead Town Hall Town Hall Southgate 1904-08 1910-11 Town Hall EDWARDIAN 1893 Marylebone BAROQUE Town Hall Croydon Woolwich 1914 Town Hall Town Hall Bethnal Green 1892-96 Town Hall 1903-06 1909-10 Tottenham Bromley Town Hall Town Hall 1903-05 1906-07 Deptford Holborn Town Hall Town Hall 1903-07 1906-08

Kingston Purley Council Guildhall Offices 1934-35 1928-30 Friern Barnet Municipal Yiewsley Offices Town Hall 1939-41 1930 Beckenham Town Hall 1932

Barking Town Hall 1958

Brent Town Hall 1935 Hornsey Meridian House Town Hall (Greenwich Town Hall) 1933-35 1938-39

Bexley Harrow Civic Centre Civic Centre 1977 1970-73

Dagenham Civic Centre 1936-37 Bow House (Poplar Town Hall) 1937-38

Wood Green Town Hall 1956-58

Westminster City Hall 1965

Hounslow Civic Centre 1972-76 BRUTALIST Kensington & Chelsea Civic Centre 1972-77

by the author alls taken from ‘English Heritage, London’s Town Halls: The architecture of local government from 1840 to the present, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1999.’

2000

4 External Grandeur 4.1 Order The main front to Woolwich Town Hall on Wellington Street is divided horizontally into a basement comprising of the lower two storeys, with a large piano nobile comprising most of the committee rooms on the upper floors. While the facade’s vertical bays are seemingly inarticulate, more so than on a classical building, there are in fact six principal bays arranged as 1-3-1: three broad, tripartite middle bays form a projecting centrepiece, with two narrower bays set back slightly on each side.9 A decisive element of original Baroque was this incomplete articulation of massing.10 Structural members tended to be oversized and multiplied.

This is reflected in Thomas’s forest of freestanding Scamozzi Ionic columns that either stand alone or are grouped into twos or threes (see fig 7) and pressed tightly together, similar to that of the entrance to St Paul’s Cathedral (1675) by Christopher Wren, where oversized Corinthian and Composite columns (rather than Ionic) are grouped into twos and threes.

In contrast to previous styles such as Renaissance, Baroque makes use of these large unarticulated masses rather than smaller separate parts, aiming to achieve broadness and unity, rather than elegance and flair.11 For Woolwich, the columns are spaced at indeterminate lengths, with windows set between the columns in a ‘Venetian’ arrangement, broad and round-headed in the centre of each bay and narrow and square-headed in the outer sections. The arrangement of structural members more similar to Domenico Trezzini’s Petrine Baroque extension to the Winter Palace (1727 St Petersburg - fig 8), where columns and pilasters become unbounded forms with an independent existence. The facades of Thomas and Trezzini both imply a reversion to a more amorphous state - as was the character of original Baroque.

Historic England, Woolwich Town Hall, Last amended 2012, https:// historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1289668 (Accessed 21st December 2019).

10 Wölfflin, H., Renaissance and Baroque, Benno Swabe & co, 1961 (first published in 1888). p.49.

11 ibid, p.49.

Fig. 7 Scamozzi Ionic Columns grouped as a three hold up the portico of the Town Hall’s front facade. Photo taken on site

Fig. 8 Domenico Trezzini’s Petrine Baroque extension to the Winter Palace. Photo sourced from Wikipedia.

9

Fig and

g. 9 Woolwich Town Hall’s Wellington Street Facade d Main Entrance. Photo taken on site.

Thomas’s decision to use a Scamozzi Ionic Order was probably influenced by James Gibbs’ publications (16821754), or by Inigo Jones’s Queen’s House at Greenwich (1616), and the Banqueting House in Whitehall (1620-1622 - fig 12) which boosted the use of Scamozzi Ionic in early English Baroque.12 Scamozzi’s primer of architecture illustrated typically as a plate of five columns and entablatures arranged side by side (see fig 11) and, typically, is very prescriptive on the scale and proportion of the pedestal, column, architrave, frieze and cornice Scamozzi’s Ionic comprised of thirteen modules and a four volute capital.

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Cornice Frieze

Entablature

Architrave Volutes & Capital

Column Shaft

Loth. C., ‘The Scamozzi Ionic Capital’, ICCA, 2011.

Pedestal

Fig. 10 Sketch by author to describe the basic elements of a Scamozzi Ionic Column.

Fig. 11 Scamozzi’s Primer of Architecture. Image sourced: Loth. C., ‘The Scamozzi Ionic Capital’, ICCA,

Fig. 12 Facade drawing by Inigo Jones of Banqueting Hall at White Hall. Sourced online: see references

Fig. 13 Sculpted Portland keystone of bearded man in bear-skin hood. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 14 Market Street Elevation. Photo taken on site

Since Vitruvius, it has been accepted that the architectural orders ought to resemble personified traits. He saw the Doric as exemplifying ‘the proportion, strength and grace of man’s body’.13 Therefore, perhaps, Thomas saw this as a suitable order for the secondary entrance on the Market Street elevation, in keeping with its masculine, military or naval insignia and sculpted Portland keystones of bearded men in bear-skin hoods (see fig 13). On the other hand, Scamozzi’s characterisation of the Corinthian as being ‘virginal’ and ‘imitating the slight figure of a girl’14 perhaps swayed Thomas’s decision to use the Ionic on the primary facade. He might have viewed this decision as a compromise to make the building appear ‘unsexed’. It would thus better represent an unbiased civic building intended for all.

Summerson, J., The Classical Language of Architecture: The Rhetoric of Baroque, Thames and Hudson, 1980, p. 14.

14 ibid, p.49.

13

4.2 Movement The centrepiece of this facade has heavy rustication at lower level with small pedimented niches breaking through the rustication; the central bay curves forward in the centre to frame the main entrance, with a rusticated arch adorned with wrought-iron gates and gilded wreaths. Thomas appears to have taken much of his vocabulary from Inigo Jones’s refacing of Old St Paul’s (1314), in particular, the flanking bays’ stone quoins and oeil-de-boeuf windows.

This deliberate use of rustication creates an illusion of movement. The light and shade cast in each small nook by nature create this strong sense of movement which is one of the style’s defining characteristics often described as being painterly.

It is generally accepted amongst art historians that the essential characteristic of Baroque architecture is that it is painterly, with its precursor being linear.15 That is to say that the linear sees in line; and the painterly sees in mass.

When seeing architecture as mass, the eye is drawn to patches of light and dark - chiaroscuro - rather than lines, angles and edges. “A facade as a pattern in light and shade, a pattern through which runs a play of meaning rather than any precise statements”.16 In simpler terms, the difference in style is defined by saying that Classical makes a clear distinction between one form and another, whereas Baroque concerns itself with producing an impression of continuous movement.

The strong contrast between light and dark is further accentuated by the overall depth of the facade. Surfaces advance and recede in a baffling way.17 The tall detached columns that support open segmental pediments sit much further forward from the brickwork wall. A projecting porch with its trio of smaller Ionic columns and architrave supporting a segmental pediment which contains the borough arms amid scrollwork and seated putti, sits even further forward from the rest of the facade. This depth of facade derives from early Baroque such as the Church of Santa Susanna (Rome 1603 - fig 15), where the depth of columns and pilasters creates dramatic changes in light and dark. Thomas, perhaps, taking inspiration from the church’s arrangement to bring attention to the central entrance.

Wölfflin, H., Principles of Art History, Getty Publications, 2015 (first published in 1915).

16 Summerson, J., The Classical Language of Architecture: The Rhetoric of Baroque, Thames and Hudson, 1980, p. 64.

17 ibid, p. 64.

15

Fig. 15 Church of Santa Susanna in Rome. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Facade_ Santa_Susanna_Rome.jpg

Fig. 16 Rustication on Wellington Street facade. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 18 Rustication on Wellington Street facade. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 17 Rustication on Market Street Elevation. Photo taken on site.

4.3 Tectonics One element of Edwardian Baroque to deviate from original Roman Baroque was that brickwork was often left exposed. The general practice of original Roman Baroque was to cover any brick with a wall covering, like plaster or stucco - a soft and versatile paste18, good for modelling and used in the early Roman Baroque after the example of the Church of the Gesu (Rome 1584). As the style shifted from linear to painterly, there was no reason for straight lines or right angles to be retained. “All hard and point shapes were blunted and softened, and everything angular became rounded”.20 The early Baroque style deprived the wall of its tectonic element which set it apart from tradition. The travertine block used since antiquity in classical architecture had lost its meaning as an individual component.

However, Thomas’s Woolwich Town Hall has swathes of exposed red brick, notably on the tower, Market Street elevation and rear. Arguably, its exterior has more red brick per square metre than any other material.

Its composition is more similar to Wren’s addition to Hampton Court (1689-94), or John Belcher’s Colchester Town Hall (1872-1902) with a simple external language of red brick and Portland dressing. Perhaps for Thomas, it was advantageous to move freely between the Baroque and other ‘mannerisms’21 in a form of creative eclecticism, as many architects did during this period.22 An early example of this is Hawksmoor and Vanburgh’s Blenheim Palace (1722), which took inspiration both from early Roman Baroque, and English Medieval Castles.23

Griffo, C, et al., Baroque Decoration; The Oratories and the Stucco Decorations, Regione Siciliana, 2015, p. 6.

19 Wölfflin, H., Principles of Art History, Getty Publications, 2015 (first published in 1915).

20 Wölfflin, H., Renaissance and Baroque, Benno Swabe & co, 1961 (first published in 1888). p.47.

21 Summerson, J., The Classical Language of Architecture: The Rhetoric of Baroque, Thames and Hudson, 1980, p. 64.

22 Stamp, G., London 1900, London, Architectural Design, 1978, p.308.

23 Summerson, J., The Classical Language of Architecture: The Rhetoric of Baroque, Thames and Hudson, 1980, p. 64.

18

Fig. 19 John Belcher’s Colchester Town Hall. Source: see reference

Fig. 20 Brickwork on Market Street. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 21 Christopher Wren’s addition to Hampton Court. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Hampton_Court_02.jpg

Most likely, the red brick on Woolwich was to ensure unity between this new Town Hall and the other municipal and educational buildings that have shaped the character of the Wellington Street Area: the former Woolwich Public Baths (1894-94); Woolwich Old Town Hall (1841-42); Woolwich Public Library (1900-01) and the former Woolwich Polytechnic (1891) whose composition is a similar language of brick and Portland.

On the other hand, it was known that Thomas undertook reductions to his original designs in 1903, which may explain his decision to leave brickwork exposed. Due to the greater expenditure of having a phased development, he was forced to economise the amount of stone and plaster used on the Market Street and Wellington Street frontages.24 On Thomas’s previous grander and more expensive town hall; Belfast City Hall (1906), the absence of brick could suggest that this choice was an economic one, rather than a personal one.

Saint, A. & Guillery, P., Survey of London Volume 48: Woolwich, London, English Heritage, 2012. p.264.

24

5 Internal Grandeur 5.1 Layout The main floor of municipal offices is sixteen steps up from street level due to the steep slope of Wellington Street.

The main entrance hall is a double height space with three basilica-like domes of intense detail and unprecedented grandeur and scale compared to any town hall that came before. The impact of this grand style is intended to be momentarily overwhelming and massive.25 In the same way that original Roman Baroque architecture used grandeur to express the triumph of the Catholic Church in the Counter-Reformation period during the late 17th century, Thomas uses Baroque and its inherent grandeur to express the triumph of Britain and its empire around the turn of the century.

The entrance hall is lit by lunettes within the side arches and the floor is paved in black-and-white marble squares laid as diamond formation. To the back of the hall, an imperial staircase leads up to the first floor gallery under barrel vaults. Notably, the painted balusters, that line the staircase and above gallery, are in a style typical of the Baroque. The baluster, which pre-Baroque consisted of two equal sections, became one single broader shaft first used in Michelangelo’s Capitoline Steps at the Piazza del Campidoglio (Rome 1538- see fig 22). This language of balustrade extends to the Wellington Street facade parallel to the pavement and stepped due to the elevation.

The ‘grand style’ demanded this broadness to reveal itself as a unified body. At the top of this staircase sits a overlife sized marble statue of Queen Victoria by Frederik W. Pomeroy; behind this, on the rear wall, rests a stained glass window in a ‘Venetian’ arrangement - both purposefully visible from the front entrance.

To the rear of the building is the public hall, accessible from Market Street. The hall is arranged on a Greekcross plan, similar to that of a church, with three arms forming galleries. The shape arranged to give up to 750 people an ‘equal opportunity of hearing and seeing the performance’.26

Wölfflin, H., Renaissance and Baroque, Benno Swabe & co, 1961 (first published in 1888). p.39.

26 The Town Hall of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich: An Account of the Design and Erection of the Building, 1906, p.26.

25

Fig. 22 Michelangelo’s Capitoline Steps at the Piazza del Campidoglio. Source: Wikipedia

Stained Glass ‘Venetian’ Window Statue of Queen Victoria

Oculus

Oculus

Dome

Dome

Pedimented Architrave

Oculus

Dome

Shouldered Architrave

Stained Glass of Queen Elizabeth I

Gallery Imperial Staircase

Gallery

Scamozzi Ionic

Wellington Street Entrance

Basement

Fig. 23 Section through Town Hall. Source: Saint, A. & Guillery, P., Survey of London Volume 48: Woolwich, London, English Heritage, 2012. p.254.

Fig. 24 Plan of the Town Hall’s Entrance Hall. Redrawn by the author.

Aisles

Imperial Staircase

Entrance Hall

Aisles

Fig. 25 One of the entrance hall’s aisles. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 27 Imperial Staircase. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 26 Dome above the imperial staircase. Similar to that on St Pauls Cathedral or St Peters Basilica. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 28 Scamozzi Ionic Capital in the Entrance Hall. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 29 View up the main imperial staircase. Photo taken on site.

5.2 Stained Glass Commissioned in late 1904, Geoffrey Webb designed a series of stained-glass windows with the help of Thomas and antiquarian W. T. Vincent, who was well known within the Woolwich district for his iconography. Each stained glass has a particular character or notable event that has historical association with Woolwich. For example, Elizabeth I and Henry VIII are the subject for glass in the council chambers, with Richard Lovelace, Henry Maudsley and Phineas Pett in the main public hall.27 Perhaps taking inspiration from the original windows in Wren’s reconstruction of St Lawrence Jewry (London 1670-87), each subject sits within an architectural frame.

For Woolwich, a triangular pediment broken at the top to reveal a chalice or goblet, rests on an entablature, comprising the cornice, frieze and architrave. Supporting this, two columns with either Ionic or Corinthian capitals rest on a base adorned with crockets and a festoon. To Thomas and Vincent, these were important notable figures. They celebrate each historical figure through grand architectural elements of Baroque expression, with even more grandeur and detail added to those who were royalty.28 Woolwich Town Hall makes continuous references to the monarchy, either through stained glass; framed in classical elements of architecture; to the over-lifed-sized marble statue of Queen Victoria, who watches down on all who enter. These constant shows of monarchical symbolism support the view that this was a time of great pride in the monarchy, and the empire - or at least, perhaps, reveals Thomas’s fealty. To further support this view, controversy arose between Thomas, and many Woolwich locals, who asked for a slightly contentious scene depicting the child emigration movement to Canada, many of whom were discharged from Woolwich Dockyard in 1869. To the discontent of many woolwich residents, Thomas chose to divert this idea into the anodyne scene of Edward III receiving the capture of King John II of France at Eltham Palace.29

Saint, A. & Guillery, P., Survey of London Volume 48: Woolwich, London, English Heritage, 2012. p.266.

28 Davenport-Hill, F., Children of the State, London, Macmillan and Co, 1889, p. 175.

29 Saint, A. & Guillery, P., Survey of London Volume 48: Woolwich, London, English Heritage, 2012. p.266.

27

Fig. 30 Phineas Pett. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 31 Queen Elizabeth I. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 32 King Henry VIII. Photo taken on site.

Fig. 33 Sir Thomas More. Photo taken on site.

6 New Decade, New Style (Part II) Previously, I suggested that the resurgence of English Baroque, in the 19th and 20th Century, was a response to the country’s growing consciousness of the empire’s supremacy. In the same way as it was originally intended, in the 17th Century, to show the Catholic Church’s supremacy in Counter-Reformation Europe. “[Baroque] buildings use the classical language of architecture with force and drama in order to overcome our resistance and persuade us into the truth of what they have to tell us”.30 The grandeur of Baroque represented a change in time and a pride in being part of something great. Its overwhelming nature was used to proclaim dominance or superiority. In modern British culture, however, pride in one’s country is often viewed as a deeply suspect emotion, perilously close to xenophobia. “It has - for several generations – been a mark of sophistication to disavow any nationalistic emotion”.31 To many, the ‘supremacy’ of the commonwealth is looked back on with embarrassment. Perhaps, then, the arrogant grandeur of Baroque, and its ideology, would now be viewed in poor taste.

However, if we are to imagine a potential resurgence of town halls in this grand manner, we may need to re-evaluate what this grandeur represents. In a civic context, grandeur might represent a ‘collective pride’ - the desire to feel proud of one’s community - rather than a ‘nationalist pride’. If we longed for collective pride, or a ‘good Nationalism’, we might learn to re-invest money and energy into grander civic buildings because we would recognise that this wealth would be owned by everyone. Whilst it may be gratifying to own a house in London, especially during the current housing crisis, there is a different kind of satisfaction about being a part owner in something magnificent: a civic monument that becomes the spirit of a community and a way of bringing people together.

I believe that Woolwich Town Hall is still loved for its grandeur today. Perhaps some do look to it and question: ‘why don’t we build like this anymore?’. This relationship between the Baroque and the Modern has always been founded on a romantic desire for what things once were,32 but also a love of novelty. Perhaps this will breed a new style or manner of grand town hall. One that draws on Baroque and another influence and ‘bursts on the scene and twists in an unexpected direction’. Whether this resurgence would be a recovery of Baroque culture and ideology, or simply a matter of aesthetic experimentation remains to be seen.

Summerson, J., The Classical Language of Architecture: The Rhetoric of Baroque, Thames and Hudson, 1980, p. 71.

31 The School of Life, Utopian Collective Pride, [website], https://www.theschooloflife.com/ thebookoflife/utopian-collective-pride/, (accessed 04 January 2019).

32 Lambert, G., The Return of the Baroque in Modern Culture, Continuum, 2004, p.51 30

7 Conclusion This case study focuses on the architectural detail of Woolwich Town Hall. By analysing the architectural detail, this method seeks to extract the meaning of Edwardian Baroque and how it was interpreted by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas. With knowledge of the building’s language, tectonics and spatial arrangement, this case study compares the architectural idea of Baroque Revival to the earlier English and Roman Baroque. In so doing, this case study seeks to determine to what the style was; the extent to which the style has changed, and if the style could be used within a contemporary context.

In Thomas’s Woolwich Town Hall, a leading example of Edwardian Baroque, we see much of the original Baroque detail. On the Wellington Street facade, structural members have the same inarticulate arrangement as Trezzini’s Winter Palace or Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral, where oversized columns stand illogically as a singles, pairs or triplets - impling a reversion to a more amorphous state. The massiveness of these columns and pilasters used to assert the dominance of Britain in the 20th century. This correlates to St Peter’s Basilica use of massiveness - to assert the dominance of the Catholic Church in the 17th century Europe.

The use of the Scamozzi Ionic Order influenced by James Gibbs’ publications or the work of Inigo Jones - exponents of early English Baroque. The heavy use of rustication or dramatic depth of external surfaces, similar to that of the Church of Santa Susanna, to create the illusion of painterly movement. This movement, according to Wollflin, a defining characteristic of the Baroque.

The deviation from Roman Baroque typically occurs through the use of English-bonded brickwork. It is one element that particularly defines the English in Woolwich Town Hall’s Baroque style. The swathes of exposed red brickwork at Woolwich perhaps draws on different manners of Baroque such as Wren’s addition to Hampton Court, or Bletchley’s Colchester Town Hall.

However, the unifying theme running through all manners of Baroque is that of grandeur. Grandeur, at Woolwich, reflected the borough’s growing municipal authority, and an ascending national consciousness of empire.

Bibliography

Summerson, J., The Classical Language of Architecture: The Rhetoric of Baroque, Thames and Hudson, 1980.

Stamp, G., London 1900, London, Architectural Design, 1978.

Service, A., Edwardian Architecture and its Origins, London, Architectural Press, 1975.

Wölfflin, H., Renaissance and Baroque, Benno Swabe & co, 1961 (first published in 1888).

Wölfflin, H., Principles of Art History, Getty Publications, 2015 (first published in 1915).

Lambert, G., The Return of the Baroque in Modern Culture, Continuum, 2004.

Cunningham, C., Victorian and Edwardian Town Halls, Routledge, 1981.

Powers, A., The Architecture of Public Service in Twentieth Century Architecture 13, London, The Twentieth Century Society, 2018.

Saint, A. & Guillery, P., Survey of London Volume 48: Woolwich, London, English Heritage, 2012. p.254.

English Heritage, London’s Town Halls: The architecture of local government from 1840 to the present, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1999.

English Heritage, London’s Town Halls: The architecture of local government from 1840 to the present, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1999.

Historic England, Woolwich Town Hall, Last amended 2012, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/thelist/list-entry/1289668 (Accessed 21st December 2019).

Woolwich Borough Council Mins, 6 March 1902, accessed via UCL archive on 19th December 2019.

Loth. C., ‘The Scamozzi Ionic Capital’, ICCA, 2011, https://www.classicist.org/articles/classicalcomments-the-scamozzi-ionic-capital/, (accessed 30th December 2019).

Barbieri. F., Scamozzi’s Orders and Proportions: An End to Illusions or a Visionary Harbinger?

Architectural Histories, 3(1): 2, 2015, p. 1-9.

The Town Hall of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich: An Account of the Design and Erection of the Building, 1906, Davenport-Hill, F., Children of the State, London, Macmillan and Co, 1889, p. 175.

The School of Life, Utopian Collective Pride, [website], https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/ utopian-collective-pride/, (accessed 04 January 2019).

Appendix - Town Halls Year(s) built

Architectural Style

1958 1936-37 1894

Neo-Georgian Modernist Modern English Renaissance

1939-41 1901

Neo-Georgian Neo-Georgian

1977 1915 1935

Modernist -post war Gothic Revival Modernist

1876-79 1932 1906-07

Gothic Revival Neo-Georgian Edwardian Baroque

1935-37 1910-11 1878-79 1906-08

Neo-Classical Edwardian Baroque Modern English Renaissance Edwardian Baroque

1892-96 1928-30

Baroque Neo-Georgian

1870-11 1909-10 1888-89 1897-88

Gothic Revival Edwardian Baroque Gothic Revival Neo-Classical

1884-85 1893

Gothic Revival Baroque

1938-39

Modernist

BARKING & DAGENHAM Barking Town Hall Dagenham Civic Centre Barking Town Hall BARNET Friern Barnet Municipal Offices Hendon Town Hall BEXLEY Bexley Civic Centre Crayford Town Hall, Crayford Rd Brent Town Hall (Wembley Town Hall) BROMLEY Anerley Town Hall (Penge Vestry Hall) Beckenham Town Hall (demolished) Bromley Town Hall CAMDEN Camden Town Hall & Extension Hampstead Town Hall Extension Holborn Town Hall (demolished) Holborn Town Hall CROYDON Croydon Town Hall and Council Offices Purley Council Offices EALING Acton Local Board Office (demolished) Acton Town Hall & Municipal Buildings Ealing Town Hall and Civic Centre Southall Town Hall ENFIELD Edmonton Town Hall (demolished) Southgate Town Hall GREENWICH Meridian House, (Greenwich Town Hall)

Woolwich Old Town Hall Woolwich Town Hall

1840-41 1903-06

Neo-Classical Edwardian Baroque

1864-66 1934-37 1866-87 1934-37

Gothic Revival Neo-Classical - Italianate Neo-Classical - Italianate Modern English Renaissance

1896-97 1938-39 1888-90

Neo-Classical - Italianate Nordic Classicism Modern English Renaissance

1956-58 1933-35 1903-05

Modernist Modernist Edwardian Baroque

1970-73

Modernist

1973-78 1930

Vernacular Neo-Georgian

1876 1972-76

Classical - Italianate Modernist -post war

1894-95 1930 1858-59

Flemish Renaissance Edwardian Baroque/Neo Classical Edwardian Baroque/Classical - Italiante

1904-08 1972-77 1880

Edwardian Baroque Post war modernism - Brutalism Neo-Classical - Italianate

1934-35

Neo-Georgian

1855 1906-08

Neo-classical Edwardian Baroque

HACKNEY Hackney Town Hall (demolished) Hackney Town Hall Shoreditch Town Hall, Old Street Stoke Newington Municipal Offices HAMMERSMITH AND FULHAM Hammersmith Town Hall (demolished) Hammersmith Town Hall & Annexe Fulham Town Hall HARINGEY Wood Green Town Hall Hornsey Town Hall Tottenham Town Hall HARROW Harrow Civic Centre HILLINGDON Hillingdon Civic Centre Yiewsley Town Hall HOUNSLOW Chiswick Town Hall Hounslow Civic Centre ISLINGTON Finsbury Town Hall Islington Town Hall Islington Vestry Hall KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA Chelsea Town Hall Kensington & Chelsea Civic Centre Kensington Town Hall (demolished) KINGSTON UPON THAMES Kingston Guildhall LAMBETH Lambeth Old Town Hall Lambeth Town Hall

LEWISHAM Deptford Town Hall Lewisham Civic Centre (Demolished)

1903-07 1958-63

NEWHAM East Ham Town Hall West Ham Town Hall

1901 1860

REDBRIDGE Redbridge Town Hall (Ilford Town Hall)

1899-1901

RICHMOND UPON THAMES Richmond Library (Richmond Town Hall)

1890

SOUTHWARK Bermondsey Vestry Hall (demolished) Rotherhithe Town Hall (demolished) St Mary’s Newington Vestry Hall Southwark Town Hall (Camberwell Town Hall)

1978-82 1895-97 1856 1872-73

TOWER HAMLETS Bethnal Green Town Hall Bow House (Poplar Town Hall) Bromley Public Hall Limehouse Town Hall Tower Hamlets Library (Mile End Vestry Hall) St George in the East Vestry Hall

1909-10 1937-38 1879 1881 1860-61 1860

WALTHAM FOREST Chingford Municipal Offices Walthamstow Town Hall

1929 1937

WANDSWORTH Battersea Arts Centre (Battersea Town Hall) Wandsworth Town Hall and Council Offices

1982-83 1880-82

WESTMINSTER Canon Hall (Westminster Town Hall) Westminster City Hall Marylebone Town Hall

1881-83 1965 1914

Figure References Fig 1.

Postcard from the 1920s of Woolwich Town Hall

Fig 2.

Professional Photograph of the Entrance Hall

Fig 3.

Map from Digimaps, in the 1910s, of the Wellington Street Area

Fig 4.

Ground Floor Plan, drawn by the author, as originally designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas

Fig 5.

First Floor Plan, drawn by the author, as originally designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas

Fig 6.

LONDON TOWN HALLS (1850-2000) Designed by the author See Appendix - classification of style and record of town halls taken from ‘English Heritage, London’s Town Halls: The architecture of local government from 1840 to the present, Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1999.’

Fig 7.

Scamozzi Ionic Columns grouped as a three hold up the portico of the Town Hall’s front facade. Photo taken on site.

Fig 8.

Domenico Trezzini’s Petrine Baroque extension to the Winter Palace. Photo sourced from Wikipedia.

Fig 9.

Woolwich Town Hall’s Wellington Street Facade and Main Entrance. Photo taken on site.

Fig 10.

Sketch by author to describe the basic elements of a Scamozzi Ionic Column.

Fig 11.

Scamozzi’s Primer of Architecture. Image sourced: Loth. C., ‘The Scamozzi Ionic Capital’, ICCA.

Fig. 12

Facade drawing by Inigo Jones of Banqueting Hall at White Hall. Sourced: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ monarchy-enlightenment/baroque-art1/baroque-england/a/the-banqueting-house-whitehall-palace-edit

Fig 13.

Sculpted Portland keystone of bearded man in bear-skin hood. Photo taken on site.

Fig 14.

Market Street Elevation. Photo taken on site

Fig 15.

Church of Santa Susanna in Rome. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Facade_Santa_Susanna_Rome.jpg

Fig 16

Rustication on Wellington Street facade. Photo taken on site.

Fig 17.

Rustication on Market Street facade. Photo taken on site.

Fig 18.

Rustication on Wellington Street facade. Photo taken on site.

Fig 19.

John Belcher’s Colchester Town Hall. Source: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/388787380318703288/?lp=true

Fig 20.

Brickwork on Market Street. Photo taken on site.

Fig 21

Christopher Wren’s addition to Hampton Court. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hampton_Court_02.jpg

Fig 22.

Michelangelo’s Capitoline Steps at the Piazza del Campidoglio. Source: Wikipedia

Fig 23.

Section through Town Hall. Source: Saint, A. & Guillery, P., Survey of London Volume 48: Woolwich, London, English Heritage, 2012. p.254.

Fig 24.

Plan of the Town Hall’s Entrance Hall. Redrawn by the author.

Fig 25.

One of the entrance hall’s aisles. Photo taken on site.

Fig 26.

Dome above the imperial staircase. Similar to that on St Pauls Cathedral or St Peters Basilica. Photo taken on site.

Fig 27.

Imperial Staircase. Photo taken on site.

Fig 28.

Scamozzi Ionic Capital in the Entrance Hall. Photo taken on site.

Fig 29.

View up the main imperial staircase. Photo taken on site.

Fig 30.

Phineas Pett. Photo taken on site.

Fig 31.

Queen Elizabeth I. Photo taken on site.

Fig 32.

King Henry VIII. Photo taken on site.

Fig 33.

Sir Thomas More. Photo taken on site.