Woolwich Town Hall
Woolwich Town Hall is the third seat of local government in Woolwich. It was built in 1903–05 when the second town hall, dating from 1842, had become too small. The first town hall was built only a few years earlier, around 1839, but was almost immediately sold to the Metropolitan Police. Earlier, the local government of Woolwich, then a civil parish in the County of Kent, met in a room next to the poorhouse and in the parish church of St Mary Magdalene. The old town hall was initially shared with Woolwich County Court. In 1855 the Metropolis Management Act provided every parish in the metropolitan area with its own local administration. In 
1889 the parish of Woolwich became part of the newly formed County of London. In 1900 the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich was formed from the parishes of Woolwich, Plumstead and Eltham. This prompted the construction of a larger and more representative town hall.
County of London
The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government Act 1888. The Act created an administrative County of London, which included within its territory the City of London. However, the City of London and the County of London formed separate ceremonial counties for "non-administrative" purposes. The local authority for the county was the London County Council (LCC), which initially performed only a limited range of functions, but gained further powers during its 76-year existence. The LCC provided very few services within the City of London, where the ancient Corporation monopolised local governance. In 1900 the lower-tier civil parishes and district boards were replaced with 28 new metropolitan boroughs. The territory of the county was in 1961. During its existence there was a long-term decline in population as more residents moved into the outer suburbs; there were periodic reviews of the local government structures in the greater London area and several failed attempts to expand the boundaries of the county. In 1965, the London Government Act 1963 replaced the county with the much larger Greater London administrative area.