[1][2] The current building replaced an earlier sessions house for the county thought to have been designed by Thomas Moore in the Georgian style and built on the south side of St Paul's Square in 1753.

[3] After the justices talked of "the foetid and unwholesome state of the courts", officials decided to erect a new shire hall on the same site.

[3] The new building, which was designed by Alfred Waterhouse in the Gothic revival style, was built in brick with red terracotta facings by John Wood & Son of Leeds and completed in 1881.

[6] Notable cases heard by the court included the trial and conviction of William Chambers for the murder of his wife and mother-in-law in Eversholt in September 1902.

[7] More properties on the south side of St Paul's Square were acquired and demolished so enabling the building to be extended to the designs of Charles Holden by the construction of five extra bays to the east to create a dedicated polygon-shaped council chamber and education offices in 1910.