After population growth associated with the increasing number of coal mines in the town, the local board of health, which had been formed in 1864,[1] established its offices in a market hall which was built in the High Street and completed in 1870.

[2] After the formation of Spennymoor Urban District Council in 1894,[4] civic leaders decided to demolish the building and to erect a more substantial structure on the same site.

It was designed in the Edwardian Baroque style, was built in red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £18,000 and was completed in 1916.

[11] With financial support from the Spennymoor Area Action Partnership,[12] part of the first floor of the town hall was converted for use as an art gallery in 2011.

[14] A room within the gallery was subsequently dedicated to exhibiting paintings by the locally-born artist and former miner, Norman Cornish.