[1] Civic leaders acquired the old church in 1557 and converted the surviving chancel and nave into a town hall: the structure was rebuilt to a neoclassical design by William Lindley in 1786.

[3] In 1846 the civic leaders decided to demolish the old town hall and to erect a new guildhall:[4] the site they selected for the new building, in Frenchgate, was occupied by a public house, the Angel Inn.

[6] Although it was a Grade II listed building, it was demolished by Doncaster Council in 1969 to make way for an extension to a Marks & Spencer shop.

The new building was designed by Cartwright Pickard in the International Style, built in glass and steel at a cost of £20 million and was completed in October 2012.

[13][14] The design involved a 5-storey rectangular tower block with 8 bays facing onto Waterdale: the southwest corner of the building, which was recessed, featured, on the ground floor, a glass doorway providing access from the new Sir Nigel Gresley Square, named after the railway engineer, Sir Nigel Gresley.