• May 11, 2005

Kingston was set to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the borough’s Guildhall opening in the summer.

It was originally opened by Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, on July 3, 1935.

It was not the borough’s first Guildhall – with Kingston having had a Guildhall or an equivalent building for more than 1,000 years.

A “moot hall” is said to have been built in the ninth century but, according to printed sources in Kingston Museum’s local history room, it was burned down late in the 13th century and replaced with a “vill hall”.

This in turn gave way to a new Guildhall in about 1500, after King Edward IV granted the borough the privilege of incorporation, plus the right to hold a Saturday court of law.

This new building served with the dual purpose of a Guildhall and court.

In 1704 the Kingston Corporation decided the old building should be restored, modernised and enlarged.

As a finishing touch, the gilded statue of Queen Anne that still gazes over the Market Place was commissioned from sculptor Francis Bird.

But by the beginning of the 20th century, the building had lost its splendour and had to be restored yet again.

In 1934 contractors began creating the building that was to remove Kingston’s local Government power base from the Market Place for the first time in its history.

Kingston was then merged with New Malden, Coombe and Surbiton, and its civic responsibilities increased making way for a second Guildhall that was built in 1981.

  • 50 YEARS AGO: May 12, 1965

More than 80 young people took part in a dance competition for the Sunshine Fund for Blind Babies and Young People. There were 116 dances, but nine-year-old Priscilla Bell was the girl that won the judge’s heart and several prizes at the show, held at Kingston Congregational Church Hall in Union Street.

  • 25 YEARS AGO: May 11, 1990

Glasnost came to Kingston from the furthest outpost of Siberia. Dr Anna Khamatova, vice president of Far Eastern University at Vladivostok, came to revolutionise educational relations between Britain and the Soviet Union. The pact between the uni and Kingston Polytechnic led to student exchanges.

  • 10 YEARS AGO: May 11, 2005

Kingston University student Osian Batyka-Williams, 22, created a prototype of an exquisite chair made out of 150 knives, forks and spoons, for his final year project. Mr Batyka-Williams spent six months collecting unwanted cutlery from restaurants and charity shops in south-west London.