The council meets at Peterborough Town Hall and has its main offices at Sand Martin House on Bittern Way.

It was made a city in 1541 following the elevation of the former St Peter's Abbey to become Peterborough Cathedral.

As originally constituted, both the city and the constituency covered the township of Peterborough and the extra-parochial area of the Minster Precincts around the cathedral, but did not include the hamlets of Dogsthorpe, Eastfield, Longthorpe, and Newark which made up the rest of the wider ancient parish of Peterborough.

[7] It was extended again in 1868 to include the more built-up parts of the parishes of Fletton and Woodston which lay on the south side of the River Nene in Huntingdonshire, unlike the rest of the constituency north of the river, which at that time was part of Northamptonshire.

Elected county councils were created in 1889 under the Local Government Act 1888, taking over administrative functions previously exercised by magistrates at the quarter sessions.

[14] In 1929 the borough boundaries were enlarged to include Gunthorpe, Longthorpe, Paston, Walton, Werrington and the area north-east of Fengate (the latter area and Longthorpe having been the parts of the old parish of Peterborough excluded from the borough on its creation in 1874).

The designated area for the new town extended beyond the borough, including parts of all the surrounding districts.

A development corporation was set up as a separate body from the council to oversee the delivery of the new town.

[31][32] Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms took effect has been as follows:[33] Lower tier non-metropolitan district Unitary authority The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Peterborough.

The wards are:[39] The improvement commissioners who preceded the city council met at a board room on Westgate.

When the council was formed in 1874 it chose to hold its meetings at the city's Guildhall, which had been built in 1671 in the Market Place (renamed Cathedral Square in 1963).

[13][43] In 2018 the council moved most of its staff from the Town Hall and other premises to modern facilities at Sand Martin House, a refurbished and extended Victorian railway building at Fletton Quays on the south side of the River Nene.

The mayor has social and legal precedence in all places within the city unless the monarch or their personal representative, a close member of the Royal Family or the lord lieutenant is present.

The mayor is expected to be politically impartial, although they are given an additional casting vote in the event of a tie.