Greenwich Town Hall, London

The old town hall in Greenwich High Road

The building was commissioned to replace the old town hall in Greenwich High Road which had served as the headquarters for the Greenwich District Board of Works before becoming the home of the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich.[2]

The site chosen for the new building had previously been occupied by the old Greenwich Theatre.[3] The new building, which was designed by Clifford Culpin in the Art Deco style, was completed in 1939.[1] It shows the influence of Hilversum town hall in the Netherlands.[1] The south east wing of the building, known as the Borough Hall, contained the council chamber.[1] Sir Nikolaus Pevsner wrote that Greenwich Town Hall was "the only town hall of any London borough to represent the style of our time adequately".[4] The tower is 55.9 metres (183 ft) high.[5]

The building was the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich until the borough was merged with the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich to form the London Borough of Greenwich with its new headquarters at Woolwich Town Hall in 1965.[6]

After the town hall ceased to be the local seat of government, it was extensively altered to create floors in the area of the council chamber in 1974.[1] Renamed Meridian House, to reflect the fact that the prime meridian goes through Greenwich,[7] it became the home of GSM London at that time.[8]

Meanwhile, the Borough Hall was used as a concert venue: the band Squeeze gave their first performance there in 1975,[9] as commemorated by a blue plaque on the side of the building.[10] The Borough Hall went on to become the home of Greenwich Dance from 1993[11] until the organisation moved out in 2018.[12]