[3] On 18 May 1938 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the town hall and talked to a local soldier, Private Alfred Wilkinson, who had been awarded the Victoria Cross in the First World War.

[5] After launching an appeal, the council secured a grant of £1.3 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund so allowing its contractor, Walter Carefoot and Sons, to start work in 2019 refurbishing the town hall and establishing a new home for the borough's archives as well as a new public searchroom on the ground floor.

It is built in Darley Dale sandstone ashlar under a steeply pitched Westmorland green slate roof with a belvedere and ornamental cupola.

The ground floor is solid and plain with an elaborate entrance porch which has paired, blocked columns with Ionic capitals supporting a semi-circular pediment bearing the borough's sculptured coat of arms.

[1] Inside is a large entrance hall with scagliola columns and an imperial staircase which accesses the council chamber and mayor's parlour on the first floor.