[2] The tolbooth was replaced by a purpose-built facility known as the town house in 1781: it was arcaded on the south side so that markets could be held, with an external staircase to reach the assembly room on the first floor, and it featured a tall clock tower with a spire.

It was designed by James Campbell Walker in the Scottish baronial style, built by John and William Marshall in ashlar stone at a cost of £16,000 and was completed in 1886.

[1] The bays on the second floor were fenestrated with sash windows, the first three of which were pedimented, and there was a prominent four-face clock tower with bartizans and a pyramid-shaped roof in the south west corner.

[1] The building became a venue for local political and civic events: visitors in the early 20th century included the novelist, Arthur Conan Doyle, who gave a speech on the "Exposition of Unionist Principles" in January 1906.

[6][7] The basement, which had accommodated police cells, was renovated in the early 1980s, in a schedule of work that included the creation of an underground emergency control centre for use in the event of nuclear war.