[3] The new building was designed by Fairbairn & Lillie in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was officially opened on 30 December 1831.

[2][4] The design involved a three-storey symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing Waterloo Road; the ground floor featured a flush portico with three round headed openings separated by Tuscan order columns supporting an entablature with triglyphs and a pediment.

[6] Conversely, the campaigner for factory reform, Rayner Stephens, speaking in the town hall, argued that the crisis was caused by the greed of the cotton mill owners.

[7] In the early 1880s, the building was considerably extended to the southeast of the original structure with a new block, designed in the Italianate style, stretching along Market Street.

[9] The town hall ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council was formed in 1974.