[2][a] After significant population growth, largely associated with new engineering businesses being formed in the town, the area became an urban district in 1894 and a municipal borough in 1899.

[5] It was designed by Smethwick-based architect Frederick J. Gill[6] in the Baroque style, built in red brick with some buff terracotta facings by John Dallow and Sons at a cost of £17,000 and was officially opened by the mayor on 19 June 1907.

[5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with fifteen bays facing onto the High Street; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward and was buff terracotta faced, featured a full-height tetrastyle portico with an arched entrance on the ground floor and sash windows on the first floor flanked by Ionic order columns supporting an entablature inscribed with the words "Council House" together with a modillioned pediment containing an oculus in the tympanum.

[1] The penultimate bays of each of the wings, which also projected forward and were also buff terracotta faced, featured sash windows on the first floor flanked by Ionic order pilasters supporting segmental pediments.

The work was recognised by Birmingham & West Midlands group of The Victorian Society, which declared the project the winner of their 2019 Conservation Award.