Coroner's Court

Coroner's Court, 29, Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BE

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1391752
Date first listed:: 12-Sep-2006
List Entry Name:: Coroner's Court
Statutory Address:: Coroner's Court, 29, Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BE

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1391752
Date first listed:: 12-Sep-2006
List Entry Name:: Coroner's Court
Statutory Address 1:: Coroner's Court, 29, Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BE

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Coroner's Court, 29, Wood Street, Barnet, EN5 4BE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Barnet (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 24477 96428

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 5 September 2024 to update the name and address and reformat the text to current standards.

31/0/10465

WOOD STREET No 29 , Coroner's Court

(Formerly listed as No 29 , Registry Office) 12-SEP-06 II Former council offices, built 1914-15 for Barnet Urban District Council, later extension to rear. Designed by William Bartlett Chancellor, surveyor, possibly a modification of a scheme of 1913 by Henry Arthur Cheers. Restrained English Baroque style.

MATERIALS: red brick with some burnt headers, laid in English bond; lighter red brick dressings; stone dressings; clay tile roof.

PLAN: rectangular plan; two storeys high. Interior comprises ground floor vestibule with offices to either side, leading to entrance hall, with stair to left hand side, two further offices to rear of entrance hall. Council chamber and ante-room on upper floor with further offices to rear.

EXTERIOR: symmetrical front (north) elevation of five bays. Stone plinth. Stone doorcase with attached Ionic columns and broken-base segmental pediment bearing carved relief coat of arms. Doorhead with swept moulding, inscribed 'BARNET UD COUNCIL OFFICES' beneath. Recessed aprons to first-floor windows. Timber modillion eaves cornice broken by semi-circular pediment with oculus. Panelled entrance doors. Hipped roof; four tall chimney stacks, one to each side and two to rear, with recessed semi-circular headed panels. Windows to all elevations have gauged brick arches, those to front with keystones; timber multi-pane sashes with exposed boxes. Side (west) elevation has pair of keyed oculi lighting the upper-floor council chamber. Cupola to roof.

INTERIOR: internal porch leads through timber glazed doors to vestibule with wood boards to either side bearing names of civic dignitaries up to 1965; that to the left for Barnet UDC, that to the right relocated from the former borough offices of East Barnet UDC. Elliptical arch through to entrance hall. Timber well stair with close-string and twisted balusters. Panelled double doors with moulded architrave to council chamber. Council chamber has oak dado panelling, moulded plaster wall panels and deep coved plaster ceiling, double doors to ante-room. Ante-room finished in similar manner. Most internal joinery original. Some simple chimneypieces in the lesser rooms, which are otherwise without features of interest.

HISTORY: originally the municipal offices for Barnet Urban District Council, formed in 1894, then in Hertfordshire. A competition was held for the design in 1913; the winning entry was that of Henry Arthur Cheers who designed a number of public buildings. However, WB CHancellor of Lichfield was selected as surveyor in 1914 and produced plans for the final scheme. The building became a registry office after 1965 when Barnet UDC, along with four neighbouring boroughs, were merged into the present London Borough of Barnet.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: of special interest as a handsome, well-detailed municipal building in the neo-Baroque style. It is one of only a few unaltered surviving examples of the smaller purpose-built local government headquarters which were built to serve the expanding suburban fringes of late C19 and early C20 London.

SOURCES: Pevsner, The Buildings of England, London 4: North, p 170; English Heritage, London's Town Halls, 1999 Barnet Local Studies and Archives

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 494858
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: London 4, North, (1998 revised 2001), 170
Smith, J, Londons Town Halls, (1999)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.