Poplar Town Hall

The old town hall in Poplar High Street

The building was commissioned to replace an aging mid-19th century municipal building with a distinctive octagonal tower and dome and mosaic detail on Poplar High Street[2] which had become the headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in 1900.[2][3] The old building on the High Street had been the scene of the Poplar Rates Rebellion, led by George Lansbury, which resulted in 19 councilors being put in prison.[4] The council sold the old town hall to a developer in 2011 and it was subsequently converted into a hotel.[4][5]

The site for the new building had been occupied by a 19th century vestry hall.[2] The new building, which was designed by Culpin and Son in the Moderist style and built in the form of a trapezoid, was completed in December 1938.[1] The Builders by sculptor David Evans is a frieze on the face of the building, unveiled by Lansbury on 10 December 1938: the Portland Stone panels commemorate the trades constructing the Town Hall and symbolise the borough's relationship with the River Thames and the youth of Poplar.[6] It was proclaimed by the council to be the first town hall to be erected in the modernist style[2] but ceased to function as the local seat of government when the enlarged London Borough of Tower Hamlets was formed in 1965.[7]

After being used as workspace by the council until the mid-1980s, the town hall was converted for commercial use in the 1990s and subsequently used as a business centre.[2]