[1] After significant population growth in the second half of the 19th century, particularly associated with the tourists arriving following the opening of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, Eastbourne became a municipal borough in 1883.

[1] It was designed in the Renaissance style, built by a local contractor, James Peerless, and was officially opened by the mayor, Councillor George Boulton, on 20 October 1886.

[1][7][8] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with sixteen bays facing onto Grove Road with the end bays slightly projected forwards and topped with mansard roofs; the sixth bay from the left, which also slightly projected forward, featured a portico with four Ionic order columns supporting a parapet and a shield; there was a casement window flanked by Corinthian order pilasters on the first floor, a Diocletian window flanked by more Corinthian order pilasters at attic level and a 130 feet (40 m) two-stage clock tower with a dome above.

[13][14] Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh visited the town hall and signed the visitors book during a tour of East Sussex in 1966.

[18] Works of art in the town hall include a plaster copy of the marble statue by Sir William Reid Dick of Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon which stands in Coronation Park, Delhi.