[4] It was designed by W. Bowen of Swansea in the neoclassical style, built of brick with a stucco coating at a cost of £2,250 and was completed in 1821.

[1] In 1830, the local church minister chose the town hall as his venue to advocate petitioning the UK Parliament for the abolition of slavery[5] and, in 1848, Joseph Tregelles Price, the Quaker ironmaster of Neath Abbey Ironworks, who was also a prominent philanthropist, chose the town hall as his venue to advocate petitioning the UK Parliament for "the maintenance of peace" in the context of the diplomatic crisis which ultimately led to the Crimean War.

[7] However, by the 1880s it was becoming too small for the council's needs and civic leaders decided that Gwyn Hall in Orchard Street should become the local seat of government after it was completed in 1888.

[5] The building was requisitioned for use as a base for two British Red Cross detachments as well as for use as a temporary home for Belgian refugees during the First World War.

[10] Works of art in the town hall include a painting by Percy Gleaves depicting David Lloyd George receiving the Freedom of the Borough of Neath in 1920.