Barking's first town hall is a Victorian Italianate building on East Street, completed in 1894 to a design by C. J. Dawson. It is a modest three-storey civic block in red brick with stone dressings, fronted by an arched ground floor and topped with a small clock tower — handsome but never grand, and quickly outgrown.
The borough vacated it in 1958 when the present Barking Town Hall opened across the square. The Old Town Hall has had a long second life as a magistrates' court and is now used as community space and arts venue, including hosting the East End Women's Museum. Worth a glance for the façade if you are walking from the station to the abbey.