Shire Hall, Cambridge

In the early 20th century County Hall in Hobson Street served as the local facility for dispensing justice and as the meeting place of Cambridgeshire County Council.[1] After deciding that the Hobson Street building was too small, county leaders chose to procure a new building; the site they selected had previously been occupied by an early 19th century prison and was adjacent to an old police station at Castle Hill.[1] The bricks from the old prison were recycled for construction of the new shire hall but the police station was retained and converted for additional office use.[2]

The new building, which was designed by Herbert Henry Dunn in the Neo-Georgian style,[3] was completed in 1933.[4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with fifteen bays facing Castle Hill; the central bay featured a doorway flanked with pilasters on the ground floor; there was a stone balcony and a window with a fanlight on the first floor.[5] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber in the centre of the building on the first floor.[5] An office building known as "The Octagon", because of its shape, was added to the north of the main building in the 1960s[6] and a bunker for use as an emergency planning centre in the event of a nuclear attack was completed in 1989.[7]

In December 2017, as part of a cost saving scheme, the county council announced plans to move to a smaller purpose-built facility at Alconbury;[8] the proposal was approved by the full county council in May 2018.[9] In May 2019 the county council announced that it would give the developer, Brookgate, a lease of up to 40 years to develop the site for hotel and office accommodation: the terms of the lease would require the developer to provide continued public access to the Castle Mound.[10][11] The costs of moving the data centre were subsequently estimated at nearly £7 million.[12]

The construction works to create a new headquarters at Alconbury, which are being undertaken by R. G. Carter to plans by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, started in December 2019.[13][14]