The building was commissioned by the Barking Local Board, formed in 1882, to serve as public offices. The site the board selected, on the southeast side of East Street, was occupied by a market garden. The new building was designed by a local architect, Charles James Dawson, in the
Renaissance Revival style, built in red brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1893. The design involved a near symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto East Street. The central bay featured a large stone
portico with a round headed opening and elaborate carvings in the
spandrels. The end bays, which were slightly projected forward, were fenestrated by
mullioned and
transomed windows on the ground floor and by
oriel windows with
ogee-shaped heads on the first floor, all surmounted by gables. The other bays were fenestrated by mullioned and transomed windows in a similar style. At roof level, there a brick
parapet and a central
cupola with a clock, an ogee-shaped dome and a
finial. Following a visit by
Prince George in 1931, when he conferred borough status on the area, it became the headquarters of the new borough council. It ceased to be local seat of government when the council relocated to the
new town hall in 1958. The building was subsequently converted for use as the local magistrates' court and re-opened as such in August 1960. In December 1989, the building was the venue for the initial stages of the trial of the former boxer,
Terry Marsh, who was accused of having shot the boxing promoter,
Frank Warren, outside
the Broadway Theatre in Barking. March was sent for trial at the
Old Bailey and was later acquitted.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service ceased using the building as a courthouse in September 2011. The courthouse featured in the television drama
Lawless, starring
Suranne Jones as a judge, in 2013. ==References==