The Old Town Hall as the stage for a Victorian social drama

It is great when faces start to emerge from the past. Reading through Gravesend & Northfleet Revisited (Robert H. Hiscock) I came across this photograph of the opening of the market hall in 1898 (Gravesend Historical Society, photo D.W.Grierson). In the white plumed hat and uniform is G.M.Arnold, eight times Mayor and philanthropist. I am beginning to imagine the Town Hall as the stage for grand Victorian gentlemen, including General Gordon and E.C. Paine, confronting the dramas of poverty, social unrest, injustice and constant change, bought about by the Industrial Revolution. The picture shows a sea of people in the foreground and it feels like the men in their civic regalia are only just holding the tide at bay. 
It will be interesting to investigate the legacy of this influential period in the Old Town Hall's history in Gravesend today.
Lucy