[7] An illuminated clock, manufactured by Gillett & Bland[9] and given by Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild, was installed on 15 October 1861 and a porch with Tuscan order columns was added in 1879.

[7] The town hall was used as an air raid shelter during the latter years of the First World War and, in October 1934, it was the venue for the inquest into the deaths of the five of the seven people who had died in the Hillman's Airways de Havilland Dragon Rapide crash which had taken place in the English Channel earlier that month.

Following a programme of restoration works, which were undertaken to a design by Godden Allen Lawn, financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund and aimed at refurbishing the council chamber and creating space for the Folkestone Museum, the building re-opened in spring 2017.

[15] The museum, which was originally based around a collection of fossils belonging to Samuel Joseph Mackie, was initially established in temporary facilities in Tontine Street in the 1860s before moving into the new library at Grace Hill in 1888.

[16] The collection was enhanced during the course of the 20th century by the acquisition of various archaeological discoveries, by some paintings by Spanish and Italian masters and with some engravings by Albrecht Dürer, before it relocated to the town hall in spring 2017.