Following significant population growth, largely associated with the fishing industry, Lower Sheringham became an urban district in 1901.[1] In 1911, the new council decided to commission purpose-built council offices:[2] the site they selected was vacant land at the junction of Church Street and Saint Peter's Road.[3] The new building was designed by the local architects, Stanley Simons & Co., in the Edwardian style, built in red brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1912.[4][5]
The design involved a symmetrical main frontage at the junction of Church Street and Saint Peter's Road; the central bay featured a recessed doorway with a fanlight on the ground floor and a prominent oriel window on the first floor surmounted by a short clock tower with a ogee-shaped roof. The central bay was flanked by curved sections which were fenestrated by three-part round headed windows separated by colonettes on the ground floor and three part square-headed windows separated by pilasters on the first floor. The side facades featured sections of four-part round headed windows which were also separated by colonettes. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber on the first floor.[6]
At the end of the First World War, a service of thanksgiving was held outside the town hall to celebrate the armistice: almost the whole town attended the service.[7] The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the urban district council for much of the 20th century,[8] but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged North Norfolk District Council was formed with its offices in Cromer in 1974.[9] It then served as the offices and meeting place of Sheringham Town Council and was the venue for the signing of a twinning agreement with the town of Otterndorf in Lower Saxony in Germany in 1998.[10]
After the town council relocated to Sheringham Community Centre in Holway Road in August 2019, the building was mothballed.[11] The contents of the town hall were auctioned in January 2021 and a planning application to convert the building for residential use was submitted to North Norfolk District Council in July 2021.[12]
