The building was commissioned to replace an aging mid-19th century
vestry hall on St Matthews Row, which had been used by the Parish of
St Matthew. The vestry hall had become the headquarters of the
Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green in 1900. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 23 September 1909. The new building was designed by Percy Robinson and William Alban Jones in the
Baroque style and built by Brand, Pettit and Co. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Cambridge Heath Road; the central bay featured a doorway on the ground floor, a large arched recess on the first floor and a domed tower above. The building was substantially extended to the east further along Patriot Square, to the designs of E.C.P. Monson in the
neoclassical style, with the works being completed in October 1939. After the council moved to more modern facilities at
Mulberry Place in 1993, the building lay vacant although the panelled council chamber was used as a location for several films including
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, released in 1998, and
Atonement, released in 2007. In 2007 the building was sold to the hotelier, Loh Lik Peng, After the hotel was officially opened in November 2010, the scheme received the "project of the year" award from the
Royal Institute of British Architects in 2011. ==Notes==