Great Hall opens its doors to public (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Great Hall opens its doors to public

10:22am Thursday 24th May 2007 in

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THE beautiful Great Hall at the old Leyton Town Hall was on show to the public during an open day on Friday.

People planning their entries for the LMO Great Hall competition were among those who took the opportunity to view it and to tour the Legacy Business Centre which is taking shape in other parts of the grade II listed building.

The restoration project by Lee Valley Estates and Hiltongrove Business Solutions is costing over £10m - and it is paying off.

All the visitors were thrilled to see the original Victorian and early 20th century features re-emerging from behind the hardboarding and below the lino which characterised it when it was used as municipal offices in recent years. The ceiling has been restored in the Great Hall itself and is a thing of beauty.

The wooden floor has still to be re-layed and visitors were invited to express their preferences between various shades of timber - a blonde version emerged a clear favourite. In the business centre itself, the biggest oohs and aahs were for the former council chamber, with its wood panelling, semi-circular Mayoral dais - inkwells still intact - and matching public seating on the opposite side.

In the days of the Leyton Borough Council, there were only 20 members so compared with a modern council chamber it is small.

But there we met Leyton ward Cllr Bob Sullivan who was enjoying himself with memories of some of the people listed as Mayors on the boards behind him.

And he pointed out enthusiastically that the oval room had an almost perfect acoustic, making speech without microphones easy to follow.

In other parts of the business centre, visitors saw beautiful marble fireplaces and stairways, glowing stained glass windows and glamourous lighting.

The developers have also left in the original hosepipe reels for firefighting as "features".

Already, about a third of the business units have been let out, and they haven't even gone on the market officially yet.