[1] The building, which was originally designed as a family home for a local merchant, William Feryes, was built on land granted by Sir James Lowther at a cost of £2,400 and was completed in 1710.

[2] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays on three floors facing onto Duke Street and featured a cupola on the roof.

[1] After significant population growth, largely associated with the growing importance of the town as a sea port, the area became a municipal borough in 1895.

[6] The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the Whitehaven Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government after the new civic centre in Lowther Street was completed in 1953.

[8] After falling into a state of disrepair in the 1980s, the building was acquired, refurbished and brought back into use by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) who let it as a courthouse to HM Courts and Tribunals Service in 1996.