The vestry hall The current building was commissioned as an extension to a 19th-century
vestry hall which had been designed by George Elkington in the
Italianate style for the Parish of
St Mary Magdalen. The vestry hall became the headquarters of the
Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey in 1900. The vestry hall was badly damaged in
the Blitz during the
Second World War and was subsequently demolished. Two stone pillars and some ironwork is all that remains of the vestry hall itself.
The town Hall After the vestry hall had become inadequate for the council's needs, civic leaders decided to build some new "municipal offices" to supplement the vestry hall. The building was designed by Henry Tansley in the
Greek Revival style and completed in 1930. Internally, the main atrium on the ground floor featured a grand staircase and
Doric order marble columns which supported an elliptical landing on the first floor and an elliptical domed ceiling above. The new building took over the role of headquarters of the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey during the Second World War but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged
London Borough of Southwark was formed in 1965. The building continued to be used as additional workspace by Southwark Council until 2010. The building was sold to a developer, Hollybrook Homes, in December 2012. Works to convert the building into a block of apartments known as "Bath House Lofts", to a design by architects, Burwell Deakins, were completed in summer 2014. ==Notes==