[1] The first town house in Hamilton, which contained the council chamber, the courthouse and the jail, was built adjoining the old tolbooth at the junction of Castle Street and Palace Grounds Road and was completed in 1798.

[3][b] After the condition of the town hall at New Cross also deteriorated, civic leaders decided to procure a purpose-built complex which combined the functions of council chamber and public hall in one place: the site they selected was open land at the corner of Cadzow Street and Lower Auchingramomt Road.

[5][6] The adjacent townhouse offices were designed by Cullen Lochhead and Brown and officially opened by King George V on 9 July 1914.

[1] The design involved a symmetrical frontage with seventeen bays facing Cadzow Street with the end bays, each with domed octagonal towers, projecting forward; the central section featured a wide doorway flanked by Doric order columns and pilasters on the ground floor; there was a wrought-iron balcony and a tall round-headed window flanked by Ionic order pilasters on the first floor with a segmental pediment above containing a carved coat of arms.

[12] In 2002, each section of the townhouse was closed to enable the building to undergo a regeneration project, costing £9 million, to proceed.