Shoreditch Town Hall

In the mid-19th century, the vestry board decided to procure a vestry hall for the Parish of St. Leonard's; the site they selected had been occupied by some old almshouses known as "Fuller's Hospital". The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works, John Thwaites, in 1865. On 12 November 1888 the inquest into the death of Mary Jane Kelly, the last victim of the Whitechapel murders, was held in the building. Following the creation of the Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch in 1899, the building was extended westwards by adding a tower and an extra three bays to the five bays that already existed. The design by William Hunt created a…