[1] They decided to procure a new building and selected a site at Fishergate which had previously been occupied by a row of residential properties.

[2] The new building, which was designed by the Manchester architect, Henry Littler, in the Queen Anne revival style,[3] opened on 14 September 1882.

[1][4][5] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing Fishergate; the right hand section, which slightly projected forwards, featured a doorway with a rectangular fanlight and shield above: the principal room was the council chamber.

[6] The new building incorporated a new headquarters for the Lancashire Constabulary[1] as well as a county records office, formed to preserve important documents.

[12] Inside the building is a memorial, unveiled in 1921, to eighteen "members of the county offices staff who gave their lives for King and Country in the Great War", including one woman, Isobel Addey Tate.