The building was commissioned by the
local board of health as dedicated municipal offices in anticipation of Southgate becoming an
urban district in 1894. The site they selected was agricultural land associated with Bowes Farm. The municipal offices, the northern section of the current complex, were designed by Arthur Rowland Barker in the
Queen Anne style and completed in 1893. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Green Lanes; there was a porch in the middle of the building and the right hand two bays projected forwards and there were rows of
sash windows on the ground floor and first floor. It was subsequently used as the Local History Archive until 2009 when it was deemed surplus to requirements and marketed for sale. It was acquired by the developer, Hollybrook Homes, in November 2013 and conversion of the property for residential use as "Prytaneum Court" (
Prytaneion is a Greek word meaning "seat of government") was completed in September 2015. As part of the transaction the developer agreed to undertake a programme of refurbishment works at a cost of £4.45 million at Palmers Green Library. The memorials commemorating council employees who had died in the
First and the
Second World Wars had been recovered from the town hall before it was converted and rededicated at Palmers Green Library in January 2019. ==Use by media==