Old Town Hall and Market Hall, Darlington

The first town hall was built at the junction of Tubwell Row and Prebend Row and opened in 1808.[4] After the first town hall became too cramped, civic leaders decided to procure a new town hall, market place and clock tower; the site they selected had been occupied by a building known as the Shambles in the Market Square.[5]

The new complex was designed by Alfred Waterhouse in the Gothic style.[1][2][3] The design for the town hall involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the Horse Market; the central bay featured a doorway with a pointed arch on the ground floor, a cast iron balcony and an oriel window on the first floor and a steep hip roof above.[1] The market hall consisted of five bays facing West Row with stalls selling produce on the ground floor and glazed arcading on the first floor,[2][6] while the clock tower, located at the north east corner of the complex, was a prominent seven-stage structure with a four-face clock and bartizans, which had been presented to the town by the railway pioneer, Joseph Pease.[3]

A flaw in the casting of one of the girders caused it to collapse during construction killing a local farmer, Robert Robson, at the annual show of the Northern Counties Fat Cattle and Poultry Society which was being held in the partly completed market hall in December 1863.[7] The complex was built by Randal Stap from London at a cost of £7,815 and brought into use, without any official opening, on 2 May 1864.[7] The clock was designed and made by Cooke's of York and the five bells were made by John Warner & Sons.[8] King George V and Queen Mary attended a reception at the old town hall in 1913.[9] Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, also visited the old town hall and waved to the crowds from the town hall steps on 27 October 1967.[10][11]

After Waterhouse's town hall also became inadequate, the council moved a new town hall in May 1970.[12] The old town hall was subsequently used as an integral part of the market hall.[10]