Hampton Wick Local Board Office

Former Hampton Wick Local Board Office
The Former Hampton Wick Local Board Office.
General information
Type	Residential
Architectural style	Jacobean
Location	45A High Street, Hampton Wick, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England
Completed	1884
Technical details
Structural system	Terracotta
Floor count	3
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Richard T. Elsam & Mr. Bonnell of Teddington
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Former Hampton Wick Local Board offices and UDC office
Designated	22 February 2013
Reference no.	1412912

The Former Hampton Wick Local Board Office, also known as The Old Library or 45A High Street, is the former office of the Local Board and, later, of the Urban District Council of Hampton Wick in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It is a Grade II listed building which currently serves as private housing.

History

The building was erected in 1884 to house the Hampton Wick Local Board established in 1863, the date inscribed on the building. It was designed by Richard T. Elsam, Surveyor to the Board, and built by Mr. Bonnell of Teddington.

The Local Board was supplanted by the Hampton Wick Urban District Council in 1894, which was abolished in 1937. Circa the 1950s, the building was converted into the Local Library, and the 1960s, received two apartments. In the 1980s, the library was transferred over to a new building on Bennet Close, and the building was converted back into an office.

In 2013, the building gained a Historic England Grade II listing after a "passionate local campaign". It was converted into an apartment building with 4 units in 2016.

Architecture

The building was designed in the Jacobean style and, as such, features several elements reminiscent of Renaissance and Baroque architecture. The façade is clad in terracotta and the roof is made of slate tiles.

A sweep of new concrete steps leads to the entrance which recedes within an archway. The archway springs within a pair of Corinthian pilasters with "lion heads" sculpted onto the capitals. The capitals support a broken architrave which reads "HAMPTON WICK U.D.C.", and the break above the keystone reads "1863", commemorating the establishment of the Hampton Wick Local Board. An egg-and-tongue ovolo runs across the façade above the architrave, surmounted by a cornice made up of a corona, an ovolo, and a filet. The egg-and-tongue ovolo breaks forward to align with the breaks of the architrave beneath it.

Above the ground floor cornice are sculpted friezes separated by four pedestals which support Doric banded pilasters, the latter two of which align with those of the entrance to form a superimposed order. The pilasters separate three bays and support another cornice, similar to that of the ground floor. The second floor has a similar arrangement to the first floor absent the sculpted friezes, and the pilasters feature carved shafts. It is also noticeably shorter, and a series of modillions project beneath the cornice which features an additional corona compared to the cornices below.

The façade is topped with a Dutch gable with obelisks on either side and at the top. The gable features a roundel with a stag and crown, the symbol of Hampton Wick. The roundel is said to have been designed by Sir Thomas James Nelson, appointed City Solicitor in 1862.

Gallery

• 
  The plaque.
• 
  The architrave.
• 
  The roundel with the stag and crown, symbol of Hampton Wick.