[2][3] After the existing council offices were deemed inadequate for their needs (the building was a narrow terraced building in a row of commercial properties), civic leaders decided to procure purpose-built council offices: the site selected had previously been occupied by the Old Barnet Brewery Company for which liquidation proceedings started in 1909[4] and were completed in 1912.

[6] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Wood Street; the central section featured a doorway with a stone surround flanked by Ionic order columns and an arched pediment bearing the town's coat of arms above; there was a window with projecting flagpole on the first floor and semi-circular pediment bearing an oculus above; a turret was erected on the roof.

[1] The building was then used for a variety of purposes including as a location for the television drama series Midsomer Murders broadcast in June 2002.

[8] After a major programme of refurbishment works costing £275,000, the north London Coroner' Court, which had previously been based at Myddelton Road in Hornsey, moved into the building in October 2009.

[11] Notable cases included a hearing in May 2015, when the coroner, Andrew Walker, ruled that the death of Jeremiah Duggan, who had been attending a "youth cadre school" organised by the LaRouche movement was not suicide,[12] and a hearing in September 2015, when relatives of Anni Dewani appeared at the court to request that an inquest be heard in England into her death in South Africa.