The structure operates as a community events venue, as well as the offices and meeting place of Chapel-en-le-Frith Parish Council.

The building was commissioned by a medical doctor, Thomas Slacke, who lived at Bowden Hall, as dedicated accommodation for the local magistrates, who had previously held their hearings in the Old Oak Inn.

[2] The building was designed in the Gothic Revival style, built in rubble masonry at a cost of £2,000, and was opened as the "New Sessions House" in 1851.

Internally, the principal rooms were the main hall on the first floor, which featured a vaulted timber roof, and the courtroom behind.

The annex, which created a new room on the first floor, adjacent to the main hall and fenestrated by four square casement windows, was completed in 1970.