The current building was commissioned to replace the old City Hall which had started life as a corn exchange.

The old City Hall was designed by Cork architect Henry Hill in the neoclassical style, built by Sir Thomas Deane in ashlar stone and was completed in 1843.

[2] The old city hall was destroyed on 11 December 1920 by the Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence as part of the Burning of Cork.

[8] The structure's entry in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes it as one of the city's "monumental classical buildings" and its site as important.

[9] In 1985, as part of commemorations of the 800th year of the Cork Charter, a limestone plinth bearing the arms was erected outside the building.