Hillingdon Civic Centre

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Coordinates: 51°32′38″N 0°28′34″W / 51.5439°N 0.4761°W / 51.5439; -0.4761
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Hillingdon Civic Centre
View of part of the Civic Centre
LocationUxbridge
Coordinates51°32′38″N 0°28′34″W / 51.5439°N 0.4761°W / 51.5439; -0.4761
Built1979
ArchitectAndrew Derbyshire
Architectural style(s)Neo-vernacular style
Listed Building – Grade II
Designated18 April 2018
Reference no.1451218
Hillingdon Civic Centre is located in London Borough of Hillingdon
Hillingdon Civic Centre
Shown in Hillingdon

Hillingdon Civic Centre is a municipal building in the High Street, Uxbridge. The civic centre, which is the headquarters of Hillingdon London Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.[1]

History

The old Uxbridge Urban District Council had acquired a house called Southfields at 265 High Street in 1927 and converted it to be its offices and meeting place, having previously met in a council chamber on the upper floors of the town's Market House.[2][3] Middlesex County Council built itself an office building adjoining Southfields in 1939 which also included a library and clinic, with plans to later extend the building onto the site of Southfields to include a town hall and municipal offices for Uxbridge Urban District Council too.[4]

With the outbreak of the

London borough in 1965,[7] civic leaders decided to procure a purpose-built civic centre. They resurrected plans to build on the site of Southfields, also incorporating the 1939 Middlesex County Council building.[8]

The new building, which was designed by

British Airports Authority, Norman Payne, on 28 April 1979.[14]

Front part of the building with clock tower as seen from High Street

Derbyshire's design envisaged a diamond-shaped building to the west containing the offices of the council officers and their departments and a more irregular-shaped building to the east containing the public areas including the council chamber, the civic suite and register office.[8] The main frontage to the public areas, facing onto the High Street, featured a loggia with eight entrances and a steep roof, with a two-storey block with a clock tower behind.[1] The design made extensive use of brick and tile, to pay homage to traditional homely brick architecture of nearby buildings and suburban developments that were "indigenous to the borough".[15][16] It was designated a Grade II Listed Building in April 2018.[1]

Despite its listed status, the building has had a mixed reception from architectural critics. In his 2012 essay Post Modernism to Ghost Modernism Jonathan Meades argued the building was symbolic of the political climate of its era and highlighted it as an early example of a more populist, conservative style of architecture which aspired to be inoffensive but instead came across as patronising. He concluded that “the proudly vaunting philistinism which has afflicted Britain for three decades found its first architectural expression at Hillingdon.”[17]

A distinctive yew wood sculpture, designed by John Phillips, made up of fourteen pieces of wood suspended on a wire rope, was hung in the stairwell leading up to council chamber.[8][18]

One of the surviving parts of the 1939 Middlesex County Council building, now visible only from an internal courtyard within the 1970s building.

References

  1. ^ a b c Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1451218)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  2. ^ "Uxbridge and District News: History in the making". Middlesex Advertiser and County Gazette. Uxbridge. 15 April 1927. p. 9. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
  3. ^ "Uxbridge Council Offices in Uxbridge High Street". London Picture Archive. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
  4. ISBN 0948667303
    .
  5. ^ Municipal Year Book. 1947. p. 1134. Retrieved 20 April 2024.
  6. ^ Bolton, Diane K; King, H P F; Wyld, Gillian; Yaxley, D C (1971). "'Hillingdon, including Uxbridge: Local government', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4, Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood With Southall, Hillingdon With Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow With Pinner, ed. T F T Baker, J S Cockburn and R B Pugh". London: British History Online. pp. 82–87. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  7. ^ "Local Government Act 1963". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  8. ^ a b c "London's Town Halls". Historic England. p. 111. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  9. ISBN 978-0-300-09513-5
    .
  10. ISBN 978-0-525-24415-8
    .
  11. ISBN 978-1-135-82328-3
    .
  12. ISBN 978-1-84467-935-5
    .
  13. ^ "Hillingdon Civic Centre". AJ Buildings Library. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  14. ^ "About the Civic Centre". London Borough of Hillingdon. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  15. ISBN 978-0-7190-6612-2
    .
  16. ISBN 978-0-300-09652-1
    .
  17. OCLC 858011155.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  18. ^ "Hillingdon Civic Centre". Geo-caching. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
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