Following significant population growth, largely associated with coal mining, the newly appointed local improvement commissioners decided to acquire the building for £2,500 in 1892. The town went on to become an urban district with Wath Hall as its headquarters in 1894. A plaque commemorating the life of William Waddington, who had died while saving a baby in the sea at Bournemouth on 2 October 1904, was installed on the face of the building in the early 20th century. A council chamber, with a herringbone pattern parquet floor and a glass cupola, was created on the first floor of the building in 1926 and a soup kitchen was also established in the building to provide food for local workers and their families during the 1926 general strike.