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.
Newham London Borough Council
Councillors were first elected in 1964, before being able to exercise power on creation of all London Boroughs on 1 April 1965. Newham replaced East Ham Borough Council, West Ham Borough Council and Woolwich Metropolitan Borough Council (for North Woolwich). West Ham was a county borough (which meant that its council had the functions of both a county and a borough) from 1889 and East Ham gained that status in 1915. It was previously a non-county borough and between 1894 and 1904 it was governed by East Ham Urban District Council. Before 1900 North Woolwich was governed by the Vestry of the Parish of Woolwich.