History of the Town Hall

In 1800 the Town Hall moved from Sandside (on the site of the former Bethel Mission, now a café) to William Newstead’s Assembly Rooms on Long Room Street, as St Nicholas Street was then called. All Scarborough Corporation business was conducted here until 1867 when a new town hall and court house were opened in Castle Road. This building was eventually considered inadequate (it was demolished in 1971) and by 1898 the Corporation was seeking a site for a new town hall. In 1903 the building you are in today became our Town Hall. The building that originally stood on this site was 22 Long Room Street (renamed St Nicholas Street in 1844). The house was the home of John Woodall, a member of a prosperous and influential Scarborough family, whose connections with the town date back to the 17th century. One of the family businesses, Woodall’s Bank, stood on the corner of St Nicholas Street until it was acquired by Barclays Bank in 1896.