On London Extra: Regenerative restoration
The triumphant comeback of Walworth Town Hall. Plus Trump Tories latest, remembering 'Everyone In', Spring Statement upside search and more
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Walworth Town Hall, as it is now called, opened in 1865 as the purpose-built Newington Vestry Hall, where civic leaders of the parish of St Mary Newington gathered. It was constructed in the Italianate style on what had previously been open land owned by the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. It was paid for with a loan from a chemist with a few quid who had come to the area by then known as Elephant and Castle to retire.
The building soon became the Town Hall of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark, but lost that status in 1965 when today's London Borough of Southwark was created. It was thereafter used for other municipal functions under its acquired current name, incorporating a museum in 2006. Then, in 2013, a fire put paid to its roof. What next?
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