The structure, which served as the meeting place of Dalkeith Burgh Council, is a Category B listed building.

[2][3] Following significant population growth, largely associated with the status of Dalkeith as a market town, the area became a police burgh in 1878.

[4] In this context, the new burgh commissioners decided to procure a purpose-built municipal structure: the site they selected was occupied by a local reservoir.

[6] The new building was designed by James Alison (1862-1932) in the Scottish baronial style, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £592 and was used for the first time on 9 October 1882.

[1][7] The design involved a symmetrical rounded frontage at the junction of Buccleuch Street and Eskbank Road; it featured a doorway in a concave moulding with a coat of arms above all surrounded by a stone carving in the form of a rope, and there was a corbelled turret with a conical roof on the first floor.