[2][3] The new building, which was designed by Robert Walker in the Italianate style, was built by Braid and Co. on an adjacent site just to the east of the old vestry hall and was completed in 1880.

[4] Speakers in the post-war era included the leader of the Union Movement, Sir Oswald Mosley, who gave a speech at the town hall in 1963.

[7] Margaret Thatcher chose the town hall to deliver her "Britain Awake" foreign policy speech, which lambasted the Soviet Union for seeking world dominance, in January 1976.

Starting in the early hours of Saturday 12 June, two days after the planning appeal was dismissed, the façade of the Old Town Hall was demolished.

[10][11] Although demolition was temporarily halted, by the time that happened, the main frontage and the interior had been so badly damaged that what remained had to be completely cleared in 1984.