[3] In the 1780s, the lord of the manor, the Earl of Harborough, decided to construct a permanent market building for the benefit of the town.

[3] The new building was designed in the neoclassical style, built in red brick with stone dressings and completed in 1788.

[3] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the west side of the High Street: this elevation featured sash windows on the first and second floors under a pediment with a coat of arms of the Earl of Harborough in the tympanum.

[7] However, the assembly rooms in the town hall were seldom used for civic purposes,[8] particularly after the council established permanent offices on Northampton Road shortly after the First World War.

[9][10] The Symington family, which owned the offices and accompanying estate, known as Brooklands, donated the facilities on Northampton Road to the town, for civic use, in July 1946.