Brent Town Hall

Brent Town Hall is a landmark building in Wembley Park in the London Borough of Brent, northwest London, England. The building is over 90,000 square feet with a site area of about 5.3 acres. The building is T-shaped, with a long façade on Forty Lane. Until 2013, the building was the seat of Brent London Borough Council and several civic services. The building is now occupied by the Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill. It is a Grade II listed building.[1]

Brent Town Hall
Brent Town Hall in 2008, prior to being vacated by the council
LocationWembley Park, Brent
Coordinates51°33′58″N 0°16′25″W
Built1940
ArchitectClifford Strange
Architectural style(s)Modern style
Websitelyceeinternational.london
Listed Building – Grade II
Designated24 September 1990
Reference no.1262141
Shown in Brent

History

The building was commissioned by the Municipal Borough of Wembley.[2] It was designed by Clifford Strange,[3] a former student of Thomas S. Tait who had been influenced in his work by the Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok.[2] The foundation stone was laid in October 1937.[4] The town hall, which was even fitted with a bomb-proof first-aid post,[2] was opened as Wembley Town Hall in 1940.[1]

In 1951, Pevsner described it as "the best of the modern town halls around London, neither fanciful nor drab".[5] It has also been described as "an English interpretation of Modernism", using brick rather than concrete.[6]

Wembley joined Willesden to become the London Borough of Brent in 1965. Willesden Town Hall, in Kilburn, was closed and Wembley Town Hall became Brent Town Hall.[7]

In 2009 the council wanted to delist its status to facilitate redevelopment of the site.[8] After the council relocated to the new Brent Civic Centre in August 2013, the town hall was sold to The French Education Property Trust which transformed it into an international French school called the Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill, which opened in September 2015.[9]

References
  1. Historic England. "Brent Town Hall (1262141)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  2. Barrès-Baker, M.C. "A Brief Architectural History of Wembley (later Brent) Town Hall" (PDF). Brent Archives. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  3. Abbott, Joshua. "Brent Town Hall". Modernism In Metro-Land. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
  4. "London's Town Halls". Historic England. p. 18. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
  5. Pevsner, Nikolaus (1951), The Buildings of England: Middlesex, Harmondsworth, Penguin, p. 170
  6. "Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill". LSI Architects. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  7. King, Rosamund & Barres-Baker, Malcolm (2011), Britain in Old Photographs: The London Borough of Brent, Stroud, The History Press, pp. 5, 47, 96 ISBN 0-75245-827-2
  8. "Brent Town Hall could be delisted", Harrow Times, 9 March 2009, retrieved 15 April 2006
  9. "French school Lycee Internationale de Londres Winston Churchill opens in Wembley". Brent and Kilburn Times. 19 September 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
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