[5] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of twenty bays facing Bickerstaffe Street; the central section of five bays featured a flight of steps leading up to a double-height stone portico with piers on the ground floor supporting paired Corinthian order columns on the first floor and an arch with a pediment above.

[4] Stained glass windows on the main staircase depicted St Helena holding a shield which bore the coat of arms of the town.

[4] After St Helens had become a county borough in 1887,[6] the conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham, supported by an ensemble drawn from the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hallé in Manchester, conducted his first public performance in the assembly hall in October 1899.

[7] The steeple on the clock tower was destroyed in a fire which took place on 9 June 1913, shortly before a visit by King George V and Queen Mary in July 1913.

[4] The town hall was a venue for a sit-in, although there were not enough chairs to sit on, over a pay dispute, on 22 October 1970.