[2] A purpose-built tolbooth was erected just south of the original building in the late 17th century: it was arcaded on the ground floor to allow markets to be held and there was a lock up in the building to accommodate prisoners, as well as a meeting room on the first floor and adjoining accommodation to allow visitors to stay.

[3][4] The design for the new building involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing the market square; the left hand bay featured a round headed doorway flanked by engaged Doric order columns with the borough coat of arms placed above the doorway.

[5] A piazza was created to the north of the building and a market cross designed by John Shout was erected there in 1768.

[3][6][7] At a meeting in the town hall in 1810, the recorder of Stockton, Leonard Raisbeck, used the opportunity to advocate the need for a railway to connect the borough with the more central parts of the country.

[3] Stockton-on-Tees Municipal Borough Council acquired the building from the Bishops of Durham in 1939 in order to secure continued access to their meeting place[2] and then hosted a visit by Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, on 4 June 1956.