I was kindly invited to see the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall currently in process of construction in what was the old London Hospital.
The old hospital was an incredibly complex site, beginning with a highly logical Enlightenment ground plan, with staff room at the front and wards behind, then almost immediately being extended with flanking wings. It then grew additively, with a west wing added in the 1830s, the Alexandra Wing in the 1860s, all of it remodelled at the turn of the century with the addition of a chapel and porte cochère at the front, Edwardianising it. When the hospital moved out to a huge new industrial building to the south, the old building was left unloved, but has been bought by the Council as its headquarters – a massive and extremely impressive project, involving keeping as much as possible of the old building to give character to the new. There will be a new Council Chamber, a vast new public reading room, and open plan offices for the staff.
This is one of the big public spaces under construction:-
And the view over Whitechapel High Street from the top floor:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
We’ve just been on a very enjoyable Open House tour of this. The remnants of the old building – including, in what is currently the Chief Executive’s office, surgical lights and other machinery (a sign outside the door warns of a laser being on) – are a lovely touch. Our tour included two women who had trained as nurses there in the 1980s and they really brought the old building alive. Had to laugh at their reaction to the much prized and restored floor on the third floor – ‘you don’t want to think about what went on these floors when they were operating theatres!’ More tours later today, tomorrow and next Saturday, for anyone interested