[4] It was finally resolved to proceed without shops; the competitive process for a new design was announced in 1910 and won by architects Edward Garrett and Henry Walter Simister of Birmingham.

[4] The new Council House was designed in the Elizabethan style,[5] as stipulated by the Borough Corporation, to be in keeping with the old St Mary's Guildhall to the rear.

[7] It was mainly an office building, designed to accommodate 1,500 people working across the various different municipal departments (ranging from the Town Clerk and City Treasurer to medical, police, education and waterworks officials); but it also contained large formal rooms such as the Council Chamber, Mayor's Parlour and various committee rooms, many of which were decorated with carvings representing the Forest of Arden.

[9][10] During the Second World War, the bombings on the night of 14 November 1940, known as the Coventry Blitz, gave rise to some damage to the building including the destruction of the stained glass windows.

[11] The former Duke of York returned to the Council House as King George VI to survey the damage in the aftermath of the raid.