COUNTY
HALL
Location: Belvedere Road, South Bank
Architect / Builder: Ralph Knott, E C Collins (Additions: E P Wheeler,
F R Hiorns, Giles Gilbert Scott)
Construction date(s): 1911-1933 (Additions: North Block: 1958, South Block:
1963, Island Block: 1974)
The London County
Council
The first home of the London County Council, formed in 1889, was in a
location off Trafalgar Square, where it quickly became apparent that a
larger building was required to accommodate the city-wide authority. The
site on the South Bank was acquired in 1905, and two years later an architectural
competition was held to select the best design for the L.C.C.’s
new headquarters. After submissions by 152 architects, the unanimous winner
was announced as Ralph Knott, a thirty-year-old architect previously unknown
for his works. Construction began in 1908, though no-one could have guessed
how long the project would take to complete. Indeed, the building would
be the work of several generations of architects, though the construction
of real historical and architectural interest is the Main Building, designed
by Knott.
The Design of the Main Building
The foundation stone for the building was laid by George V in 1912 and
the building was constructed in Edwardian baroque style, a symmetrical
composition with a concave giant colonnade as its central motif. The building’s
base, like the river wall of the neighbouring embankment, is of Cornish
granite (approximately 290 million years old) and the building itself
is faced with Portland Stone. It comprises of six storeys, though the
first floor, which contains the principal rooms, is far larger than the
others. The fifth and six floors, above a heavy overhanging cornice, are
lighted by dormer windows set in long sloping roofs laid with rich Italian
tiles. Work on the immense structure must have been frustratingly slow,
and it was officially declared open in 1922, though it was far from complete.
In fact, Knott himself died in 1929, a few years before he could see the
Main Building complete, and a plaque to his memory was placed in the courtyard
of the Hall. It was E.C. Collins who succeeded Knott and finally saw the
completion of the Main Building and its opening in 1933. Work did not
stop on the expansion of County Hall, and two wings (the North and South
blocks) were planned from 1937 by F. R. Hiorns (in consultation with the
noted London architect, G. G. Scott). These wings, though founded in 1939,
were delayed by war and were not eventually opened until 1958 (North Block)
and 1963 (South Block). With the completion of the Island Block in 1974,
the construction of the County Hall site was finally at an end, though
not its evolution.
The Greater London Council
Soon after the South Block had been completed, in 1965 the L.C.C. was
replaced by the Greater London Council, a body which, as its name suggests,
extended the L.C.C.’s boundaries to cover all suburbs developed
after 1888. At the same time local councils were amalgamated and modernised
into the larger borough councils, which came into constant conflict with
the G.L.C.. The wrangling between these two groups was put to an end in
1986, when the government took the drastic step of abolishing the G.L.C.
and dividing its municipal affairs among the borough councils, London
being left as the only major world city without a central authority. This
state of affairs would not prove to be a permanent one, and a referendum
in 1998 approved government plans to return a citywide administration
to the capital (see Greater London Authority Headquarters, Tooley Street).
As for the County Hall itself, it remains one of the South Bank’s
most impressive riverside buildings, and has became home to two hotels,
the London Aquarium, the Dali Experience, and the box office for the London
Eye. It is soon to house the new 40,000 square foot Saatchi Gallery from
Spring 2003.
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