Anthony Coleman - Town Hall Series: A London Typology

'A definitive study of London's civic townscape' - the Architects Journal

Town Hall Series: A London Typology, is an ongoing project by architecture and landscape photographer Anthony Coleman.

Inspired by the civic confidence and architectural ambition of London's town halls, and how many of the buildings today have new functions. Coleman's images neatly summarise the city's ever-changing townscape.

The photographs present a variety of still-in-use town halls as well as those that have found other uses, from Bethnal Green (see image, above), now a high end restaurant to Hackney Old Town Hall, a betting shop, and Wimbledon, which today is home to a supermarket. Arranged systematically Coleman contrasts their bold and eccentric facades with other typical high street details, such as road markings, street furtniture, and unusually for architectural photography, people.

'Coleman's photographs have a sculptural quality and showcase the broad range of styles exlored by London's town hall architects,' says Rory Olcayto, editor of the Architects' Journal. 'From Alfred Brumwell Thomas's English Baroque at Woolwich to Clifford Culpin's avowedly Modernist Greenwich and George Trevitt's corporate international style at Hounslow, this is a definitive study of London's civic townscape.'

Coleman, a contributing photographer to the Architect's Journal, trained first in architecture before studying photography at the Royal College of Art. He is a member of the photography agency View Pictures and works occasionaly with the London Open House team provising architectural photography tours of the City of London.