[1] The building was built on the site of an earlier tolbooth which incorporated cells for petty prisoners.

[2][3] The new building was designed by James Dempster of Greenock in the Gothic Revival style, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £4,000 and was completed in 1835.

[1] The clock was paid for by John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute as a gift to the town,[6] while the town hall bell was manufactured by John C. Wilson of the Gorbals Brass and Bell Foundry in Glasgow.

[10] The new district council continued to use the building for the delivery of local services and it remained the venue for sheriff's court hearings.

[11] An extensive programme of refurbishment works, to a design by Collective Architecture, was completed in March 2011: the works, which cost £4.3 million, involved the re-modelling of the complex around a new courtyard to the rear of the main building and the conversion of the interior of the complex into 25 new apartments.