Guest post by local historian Philip Grant, in a personal capacity.
Today 24th September is the 35th anniversary of the Town Hall being given Grade II listed status for its architectural and historic significance.
1. Brent Town Hall in 2009.
Last Monday, I was in the Council Chamber at Brent Civic Centre, presenting a petition to save a heritage building. Two days earlier, I had been in the Council Chamber at another local heritage building, the former Brent Town Hall in Forty Lane, Wembley. As part of its 10th anniversary, the French Lycée was giving guided tours of this Grade II listed (since 24 September 1990) building, which I had last been in to attend a Planning Committee meeting in 2013, as part of Open House weekend.
2.The Council Chamber (still with that name) is regularly used for school meetings.
The building dates from the late 1930s, after Wembley and Kingsbury Urban District Councils had merged in 1934. A site of just over 2 hectares was bought, on a hillside between Kings Drive and The Paddocks, land which had previously been a polo club (with paddocks for its ponies), then used as a camp for a huge jamboree of Boy Scouts from across the British Empire, in conjunction with the Exhibition at Wembley in 1924. A promising young architect, Clifford Strange, was chosen for the town hall’s design in 1935, and work eventually got underway in 1937 (after a public enquiry over whether the Council should borrow £160,000 to fund the building – equivalent to around £14.5m now).
3.Ceremonial breaking of the first ground for the Town Hall in 1937.
The foundation stone was laid on 9 October 1937, and carries the name of the Urban District Council, even though it had received its charter, becoming the Borough of Wembley, a week earlier. Strange’s design, in Lincolnshire brick but with a steel frame, was different from many town halls of the same period because it was influenced by the work of the Dutch architect, Willem Dudok, and features from Scandinavian buildings. It has an asymmetrical plan, with the main entrance off-centre, and a “T” shape, with a frontage 350ft (106 metres) long and a large Assembly Hall stretching out at the back, behind the wide central staircase tower.
4.Aerial view of WembleyTown Hall, nearing completion in 1939.
One of the first things I learned on my visit to the building is that the Lycée, since purchasing the Town Hall from Brent Council and taking occupation at the beginning of 2014, has been very careful to preserve the fabric and features of the heritage building. This has meant long discussions at times with Historic England, and extra expense, but the results of their care are evident as you go around it. Even the framed school photographs, in the reception area as you pass through the entrance doors, are stuck (reversibly) to the marble wall, as no drilling is allowed.
One original feature, just inside the doors, is the box office window, where tickets for Town Hall events were sold. The grand Assembly Hall, which would seat 1,200 people, was not just for show. It was a commercial entertainment venue, with a full programme of events organised by the Council’s own Entertainments Manager, and employing its own dance orchestra. Events were advertised weekly in the local newspapers – this example is from March 1952 (the same week that Wembley History Society was formed, when more than 100 residents answered an invitation from the Mayor to attend a founding meeting in the Council Chamber!).
5.A Wembley Borough Council entertainments advert.
(Source: Brent Archives local newspaper microfilms)
Going up the pale cream marble staircase, with matching marble walls and art deco style hand rails, on the left at the next level is the internal entrance to the Library. Wembley did not have its own library service, this was provided by Middlesex County Council, and the Town Hall Library until at least the 1950s was just a reference library, with the main public access via steps up from Kings Drive. I remember it as a normal Brent Public Library, where I would display posters advertising the History Society’s programme of talks, and where I organised two small local history exhibitions (including one celebrating the Society’s 60th anniversary).
6.Part of the 2012 Wembley History Society exhibition in the Town Hall Library.
The Lycée still uses the library for its original purpose, but it is also more than that, including tables for playing chess, and a small display of “finds” from the grounds by its Archaeology Club. It is a bright and airy space, as you can see from this photograph.
7.The former Town Hall Library in September 2025.
Continuing up the stairs, you come to the large landing space in front of the Assembly Hall, which the signs the Lycée inherited tell you is still called the Paul Daisley Hall, named after the former Council Leader and Brent East M.P. who tragically died of cancer in 2003. This space is often used by students to congregate and chat during breaks, and the curved display cases on either side of the entrance to the Hall are currently hidden by protective sheeting. This photograph from 2012 will give you an idea of what they look like, and of the marble which they used to line the walls of the central staircase area in the 1930s.
8.One of the display cases beside the Hall entrance (used for the WHS exhibition in 2012)
At the edge of the photo above, you can just see a sign for the ladies’ toilets. Although those toilets have now been extensively modernised for use by the Lycée’s students, the original metal letters for the “Ladies Cloakroom”, fixed into the marble, have still been retained above the entrance.
When you enter the Paul Daisley Hall itself, you can see what a large public hall it is, still with its original parquet flooring, which has been sanded and polished to show it at its best. However, as it is now used as an indoor sports hall, there are the markings for several courts, and the wood-lined lower walls of the lofty hall are protected by absorbent sheeting to protect them from damage. The stage area is also screened off, although this can be removed when the hall is used for performances.
9.The Paul Daisley Hall, now used by the Lycée as a sports hall.
As you go up the staircase to the next level, there is a great view across Wembley Park through the large window which fronts the central tower of the building. Originally, it looked across to the twin towers of Wembley Stadium, and when I was there more than ten years ago you could see the new stadium. Now you can barely see the Wembley Arch, for all the tower blocks built during the past decade (whatever happened to ‘protected views’ of the Stadium!).
10.Wembley Park, from the central staircase window.
11.The 60th anniversary memorial on the glass screen fronting the Council Chamber.
As you emerge from the stairs at the next level, the Council Chamber is in front of you, separated from the landing by a full height glass screen. This curved screen is another innovative feature of the late 1930s Town Hall, whose design includes elements of both modernism and Art Deco, and allows plenty of light into the Council Chamber. To the left on this floor are the three Committee Rooms, all wood panelled, with partitions which can be folded back to create one large room. The students in the group showing us round were reminded that this provided a good-sized exam room, but their “Professeur” said that it had also been used recently for a staff cèilidh (well, parts of France do have a Celtic connection!).
12.The Council Chamber from the public gallery.
I included a photo inside the Council Chamber early in this article, but we were also able to visit the public gallery on the top floor, to look down on it. The three arm chairs (apparently used by the Mayor and others during formal Council meetings – can any present or former councillors confirm that in a comment, please?) were left behind by Brent when the Town Hall was sold, as features of the heritage building. We were told by Laurent (pictured – the Lycée’s Chief Executive Officer, and proud guardian of the heritage building since 2014) that students are not allowed into the public gallery, as the railing at the front is too low for today’s safety standards, but can’t be changed because it is an original feature.
13.Inside and outside views of the former Town Hall’s roof garden room.
Another part of the former Town Hall, that I had never been in was what I will call the roof garden room. This is very much an Art Deco feature, which is set back from the three-storey right-hand office wing of the building. Although most of the windows in the building were replaced with modern-standard copies of the originals as part of its refurbishment before the Lycée opened in September 2015, the 1930s floor to ceiling windows in this room had to be retained. I don’t know what the room’s original purpose was, although at a guess I would think it was for official receptions of the Council’s guests.
14.A corner of the “Mayor’s Parlour”, with its original desk.
Nearby is the former Mayor’s Parlour, where the Mayors of Wembley, then Brent, would have their office and would also entertain guests. It has beautiful wood panelled walls, with curved corners, again an Art Deco feature. It is now the office of the Lycée’s Head of School, Mireille Rabaté, and includes the matching desk which was part of the original Town Hall, again left by Brent Council as part of the building’s heritage. And the photo on her desk is, of course, of Winston Churchill, after whom this bilingual international school is named. If you wish to read about the Lycée, you can find their website here.
Philip Grant.
1 comment:
My brother used to attend concerts there by lots of famous pop/rock and roll stars - it was a major entertainment venue.
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