Town Hall and Vestry Hall, Mile End

The foundation stone was laid for the Mile End Old Town workhouse in 1858. The Parish had acquired a large piece of land, north of Mile End Road, to construct a workhouse. It was needed to provide indoor relief for the Poor of the Parish as required by the Poor Law Act of 1834, which did away with outdoor relief. A newly constructed road, Bancroft Road, connected the workhouse to Mile End Road. Around 1863, the Town Hall and Vestry, fronting Bancroft Road, was built in the south-west corner of the workhouse site.

Most workhouses became the foundations for later hospitals. This was the case for the Mile End Old Town workhouse. Because those in the workhouse were destitute, old, mainly ill and children, medical care had to be provide. So in 1879 an infirmary was built on the site, called the Mile End Old Town Infirmary. By the turn of the century the Vestry system of local government was changed and the Town Hall and Vestry became part of the Hospital complex. Around the same time the Infirmary was given a new name, “Mile End Hospital”, thereby distancing it from its association with the harsh workhouse.

During the First World War it became Mile End Military Hospital. In 1968 the Hospital merged with the London Hospital becoming London Hospital (Mile End).

Today the Hospital and the Town Hall and Vestry building are part of Mile End Hospital, Tower Hamlets NHS, Primary Care Trust.