[2][3] The new building was designed by the county surveyor for Norfolk, John Brown, in the neoclassical style, built in brick with a stucco finish and was completed in 1839.

[4][5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five pays facing onto Whitecross Road.

The central section of three bays featured a large portico formed by four full-height Doric order pilasters supporting an entablature and a modillioned pediment.

The central bay contained a round-headed doorway with an architrave and a keystone and an oblong panel at first floor level, all within a full-height recess.

[9] The new council established its offices at the Shirehall[10] but, in the early 1950s, civic leaders decided to relocate to a building at No.