[1] In the early 20th century Watford Urban District Council operated from municipal offices at Upton House in The Parade.

[2] The council sought a proper town hall after it achieved municipal borough status in 1922.

[3] The site proposed for the new building in Rickmansworth Road had previously been occupied by an old mansion known as "The Elms".

[4][6] The design involved a concave main frontage of seven bays facing Rickmansworth Road from which wings stretched back to the south west and north west; the central section featured a doorway with a wide cast iron balcony and a shield above; there was a clock with a lantern above at roof level.

[7] During the Second World War, William Joyce, who as Lord Haw-Haw broadcast Nazi propaganda from Germany to the UK, criticised Watford Borough Council for the fact that the town hall clock was always two minutes slow.