[1] The first municipal building in Godalming was an 18th-century market hall in the High Street which was used to accommodate French prisoners following the capture of Belle Île in June 1761.

[2] It was replaced by the current market hall, The Pepperpot, which was designed by John Perry in the neoclassical style, built by public subscription and completed in 1814.

[6][7][8] In May 1907 tenders were invited from contractors to extend the public hall in Bridge Street to the west to create new municipal buildings for the borough.

[4] The design of the enlarged structure involved an asymmetrical main frontage with ten bays facing onto Bridge Street; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured arcading on the ground floor, three sash windows with stone surrounds on the first floor and a pediment above with an oculus in the tympanum.

[16][17] Works of art in the borough hall include a portrait by Godfrey Kneller of the locally-born sailor, Admiral Sir John Balchen,[18] who became governor of the Greenwich Naval Hospital in March 1743.