THE TOWN HALL HOTEL
We our so excited to invite you to The Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green, located in the borough of Tower Hamlets. Opened in 1910, this building was the original premises for the Metropolitan Borough Council of Bethnal Green, at a time when the area's population was quickly growing causing the local government to assume more and more roles. Enjoy learning about some of the history of the building and the area on this page!
HOTEL RESTAURAUNTS
THE TOWN HALL IS HOME TO TWO INCREDIBLE RESTAURANTS:
THE BUILDING
THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXERPT FROM A HISTORICAL REPORT WRITTEN BY ROGER BOWDIER IN 1996
The earlier phase of the town hail was opened in November 1910. It is a characteristic municipal building of its date, a stately pile of Portland stone in the English Renaissance idiom enriched with sculptural figures carved from models by the sculptor Henry Poole. Its principal front was on Cambridge Heath Road, with the main entrance being emphasised with a domed tower over the large arched recess. The East London Observer for 5.xi. 1910 described it as 'a striking and beautiful feature in an important thoroughfare'.
The tone of Baroque lavishness is continued within. The public circulation areas are all lined and floored with marble: the main staircase is particularly impressive, illuminated via a Venetian window with armorial glass. A variety of foreign marbles of various shades of green and grey create a sumptuous effect. The jardinieres that formerly ornamented the stair case were stolen in September 1993, according to an internal Tower Hamlets memo. Opposite the stairs is the former mayor's parlour and along the Cambridge Heath Road front of the first floor are two former committee rooms and a members' room; all are lined in Austrian oak, and this material was also used for the furniture, most of which has been sold.
The principal chamber on the first floor was the council chamber, some 51 ft long by 38 ft, with a public gallery at the east end. The stage of this room was boxed in at some point in the 1980s, with the result that the gallery is now hidden from view and the stage area is occupied by temporary offices. The council chamber contains good plaster figures (again modelled by Henry Poole) depicting Truth and Happiness (on the west wall) and Industry and Temperance on the east wall (and now hidden from view). The other rooms within the town hail were of far less interest, consisting simply of utilitarian offices. The significant interiors (with the exception of the council chamber) have survived very well.
HISTORICAL IMAGES OF BETHNAL GREEN
Bethnal Green Tube station was a safe spot for civilians hiding from the German air raid.
THE LEGENDARY BLIND BEGGAR OF BETHNAL GREEN
THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXERPT FROM A HISTORICAL REPORT WRITTEN BY ROGER BOWDIER IN 1996
The story itself is shrouded in legend, and set in a Bethnal Green vastly different from the chaotic and overcrowded slum it became in the 19th century.
Bethnal Green is first mentioned in an Eighth Century deed. One Mathilda le Vayre of Stepney is listed as having a home in ‘Blithehall’, and making a grant of the house’s courtyard.
By the Middle Ages, however, Bethnal Green was rather isolated from London, a quiet little village and rather grand. There were manor houses and mansions in the surrounding countryside and cottages cluster- ed around the green itself. In the 1200s, one of those manor houses belonged to Simon de Montford – the young lord
who is today remembered by Montford House, a red-brick block of flats on the north side of Victoria Park Square. His story, and how he went from landed gentry to poor beggar, became hugely popular in early Tudor times, and was given a new lease of life by Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, which was published in 1765.
Simon was a soldier in the service of the king, and fought at the Battle of Evesham, in the West Country, in 1265. According to the legend, he fell at the battle and was found wandering, blinded, by a nobleman’s daughter. She nursed the wounded soldier back to health, they fell in love and were married. In time a daughter arrived, but although Besse was beautiful she couldn’t find a husband – the problem being her father. Besse was courted by four suitors; a rich gentleman, a knight, a London merchant and the son of an innkeeper. Most of them withdrew their suit when they met Montford to ask for the old soldier’s consent to the marriage. Montford’s reduced circum-stances were related through a popular song of the time:
“My father, shee said, is soone to be seene
The siely, blind beggar of Bednall-green,
That daylye sits begging for charitie,
He is the good father of pretty Besse.
Hie makrs and his tokens are knowen very well;
He alwayes is led with a dogg and a bell;
A seely old man, God knoweth, is he,
Yet he is the father of pretty Besse.”
In a predictably medieval twist, the courtly knight was the only man who could see past the seeming lack of a decent dowry to the woman he loved. He received his reward, as the couple received a dowry of £3,000, plus £100 for Besse’s wedding dress. The benefactor? Grandfather Henry, who was still a rich man. The legend persisted. Samuel Pepys visited fashionable Bethnal Green to stay with his friend, Sir William Ryder; Ryder’s house occupied the very same spot as the Montford mansion. The great diarist records the occasion on June 26, 1663:
“By coach to Bednall-green, to Sir W Ryder’s to dinner. A fine merry walk with the ladies alone after dinner in the garden; the greatest quantity of strawberries I ever saw, and good. This very house was built by the Blind Beggar of Bednall-green, so much talked of and sang in ballads.” By 1690, the Bethnal Green beadle bore the badge of the Blind Beggar on his ceremonial staff. And in the 18th century every pub in the area bore the image of the beggar on their signs. Even Kirby’s Castle, a lunatic asylum, was dubbed the Blind Beggar’s House in 1727. Kirby’s Castle was demolished to make way for post-War redevelopment, Montford’s House is buried in mystery, and today only one pub bears the sign of the Blind Beggar.
But Besse is remembered in Besse Street, the mayor bears an image of Simon and Besse on the borough’s ceremonial badge and, most famous of all, in 1966, the Kray twins and the unfortunate George Cornell sealed the Blind Beggar in the nation’s folklore forever.