In the mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company to raise funds for the erection of an events venue in the town.[2] The site they selected was on the west side of Prince of Wales Road and the foundation stone was laid by Mrs Benjamin Bond-Cabbell of Cromer Hall on 3 January 1890.[3] The building was designed by George Skipper in the Queen Anne style, built in red brick with a stucco finish by Chapman and Son of Norwich and was completed later that year.[1][4][5]
The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Prince of Wales Road; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured, on the ground floor, a round headed doorway and, on the first floor, a four-part window flanked by fluted pilasters supporting a modillioned pediment with an illustration of a sailing ship in the tympanum.[a] The bays on either side of the central bay were fenestrated by sash windows on the ground floor and by two-part windows on the first floor while the outer bays were fenestrated by pairs of sash windows on the ground floor and by three-part windows on the first floor. Between the two floors there was a panel bearing the coats of arms of the first lord of the manor, Sir Nicholas de Weyland, of the mariner, Robert Bacon, of the locally-born Lord Mayor of London, Sir Bartholomew Reade, and of the later lords of the manor, Lord Suffield and Benjamin Bond-Cabbell, as well as those of other prominent local families.[3] Internally, the principal room was the main assembly hall which was designed to accommodate 900 people.[3]
Following significant population growth, largely associated with the tourism industry, the area became an urban district in 1894.[8] However, rather than using the town hall, the new council chose to establish its offices at the corner of West Street and Chapel Street in 1908,[9] before relocating to North Lodge Park in 1928.[10] Following the Second World War, during which time the town hall was requisitioned for military use,[11] it resumed its role as a theatre and performers included the actor, Bernard Archard, who appeared in a production entitled The Regency Players, in 1960.[12]
The building was acquired by a firm of wine merchants in 1963, when the company that had developed it was wound up.[13] The town hall was then acquired by a property developer and let to the Co-op in 1991, before being restored with funding from English Heritage in 1994.[14] In the early 21st century, it was occupied by a firm of solicitors,[15] and, in September 2020, it re-opened as a shop known as "Harbord's Artisan Vintage Emporium".[16]
