The Story Of Havering Town Hall: From Romford’s Civic Ambitions To The Present Day

2nd October 20261st October 2026 The Havering Daily 0 Comments Antoine Englebert, Architects' Journal, Austrian, Bath, Chamber, England, Essex, Geens, George Broadbridge, Grade II, Havering, Havering Character Study, Havering Town Hall, Herbert, Historic England, Hornchurch Urban District, International Moderne, Leicester, Liberty, London, London Borough, Lord Mayor, Main Road, Market House, Market Place, Municipal Borough, Present Day, Romford, Romford Town hall, Romford Urban District, Romford's, Romford's Civic Ambitions, Story, Swanage, Town Hall, Victorian min read

The building on Main Road began life as Romford Town Hall and has stood at the centre of local government for almost 90 years.

Havering Town Hall is so familiar to generations of residents that it is easy to assume it was built for the London Borough of Havering. In fact, the building is considerably older than the borough whose name it now carries.

Before the present Town Hall existed, Romford’s local authority worked from the old Market House and court house in the Market Place. The building had been associated with the former Liberty of Havering and was acquired with the market by the local authority in 1892. It continued to serve as municipal offices until 1931, by which time Romford’s rapid growth had made purpose-built accommodation increasingly necessary.

In 1935 Romford Urban District Council launched an architectural competition for new municipal offices and an assembly hall. The competition attracted 66 sets of drawings. Bournemouth architects Herbert R. Collins and Antoine Englebert O. Geens won first prize and, remarkably, also took second prize with an alternative design.

Their winning scheme was deliberately modern and economical. The present building was designed in the International Moderne style, using a steel frame, Leicester silver-grey facing bricks and Swanage stone. Its restrained frontage was the opposite of the highly decorated Victorian civic buildings that had gone before.

The foundation stone was laid in November 1936 and the completed municipal offices were formally opened as Romford Town Hall on 16 September 1937 by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir George Broadbridge.

That date was particularly significant. Romford was also presented with its charter of incorporation, becoming the Municipal Borough of Romford on the same day.

The building people see today was not the whole scheme. Collins and Geens had designed a large assembly hall and refreshment room alongside the municipal offices, but that part was never built. The surviving Town Hall was later extended by three bays in 1960, carefully matching the original materials and appearance, and another south-eastern wing followed in 1988.

When the London Borough of Havering came into being on 1 April 1965, combining the former Municipal Borough of Romford and Hornchurch Urban District, Romford Town Hall was retained as the headquarters of the new council and became Havering Town Hall.

The building was Grade II listed in 1999. Historic England records important surviving features including the Bath stone staircase hall, Austrian oak public gallery in the Council Chamber, oak panelling, original corridors and even the former caretaker’s flat.

More recent refurbishment has adapted parts of the building for modern customer services and flexible working, while its listed areas remain protected. Nearly nine decades after it opened, the building conceived for a growing Essex town remains the working civic headquarters of Havering.