[1] After significant population growth in the town associated with the local specialism known as mercerisation, i.e. strengthening of cotton for the textile industry, Great Harwood became an urban district in 1894.

[2] In this context, civic leaders decided to procure a town hall: the site they selected had been occupied by a row of old cottages.

[1][4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the new square with the end bays, which slightly projected forward, displaying Diocletian windows on the ground floor, three-light sash windows on the first floor flanked by corbelled corners with turrets above and oculi in the gables.

[1] The building was part of a greater development to create a new Town Hall Square, which also involved the building of the Manchester and County Bank (now the NatWest Bank) on a corner site to the north of the town hall, also completed in 1900,[5] and the Mercer Memorial Tower commemorating the life of the scientist, John Mercer, completed in 1903.

[9] It subsequently remained vacant in a semi-derelict state until it was acquired by a developer, Globe Enterprises, and, after a programme of works costing £500,000, it re-opened as an office complex known as "The Chambers" in May 2011.