[1] The building was commissioned by Daniel and Caroline Gurteen, who were the proprietors of a textile manufacturing business at Chauntry Mills in Haverhill,[2] as part of celebrations for their 50th wedding anniversary.
The site they selected was on the southwest side of the High Street, close to Haverhill South railway station.
It was designed by Edward Sharman of Wellingborough in the Gothic Revival style, built in red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £5,000 and was officially opened as Haverhill Town Hall on 2 August 1883.
In the early 1990s, it was owned by the St Edmundsbury Borough Council, which converted it into an arts centre and re-opened it as such on 1 December 1994.
Its main front is three bays wide, and has a projecting three-stage porch rising the full height of the building and surmounted by a gable.