Scarborough Town Hall, originally St Nicholas House, is a red brick Jacobean Revival mansion in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, currently used as a municipal building for the Borough of Scarborough and an events venue. It was built in the 19th century as a home for John Woodall, a prominent local businessman, and then converted and extended for municipal use in 1903. Situated overlooking the South Bay, it is a grade II listed building. History The origins of local government in Scarborough date to a charter granted by Henry II in 1163. An ancient town hall based on Sandside, facing the harbour on a site now occupied by the former Bethel Mission Chapel, moved in 1800 to William Newstead's Assembly Rooms on Long Room Street (now St Nicholas Street). This was the Corporation's seat until 1867, when a new town hall and courthouse were opened in Castle Road. By 1898, this too was considered inadequate and the Corporation sought a new town hall site. The mansion which was to become the town hall was St Nicholas House, which was commissioned by John Woodall – part of a prominent and successful Scarborough family – to replace his previous home, 22 Long Room Street. The date and architect of the construction appears to be contested; research by Scarborough Civic Society suggests it was by Henry Wyatt in 1844, while the listing description from Historic England ascribes it to W B Stewart, 1869–70. It cost approximately £2,300 () at a time when Scarborough's population was 18,377. In 1898 – by which point the population had grown to 33,776 and needed further resources for administration – John Woodall's son, John W Woodall, whose portrait hangs inside the building's foyer, and who had inherited the property in 1879, put forward and sold St Nicholas House to the Corporation. It paid £33,575 () for the building; this price also included other properties on the cliff which have been demolished. The house needed work to make it suitable for use as a town hall, and this was designed by the newly appointed borough engineer and surveyor Harry W Smith in 1898–1903. This involved a new east wing to fit new rooms such as departmental offices and the council chamber. The cost of conversion was about £19,500. An official opening ceremony took place on 28 July 1903, during which Queen Victoria's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice, formally opened the Town