The construction of the Town Hall began in 1914, but the shortage of materials and high costs of labor caused by WWI delayed its completion until 1916. This stately colonial building with strong classical elements was designed by government architect A.B. Hubback, who also designed the Railway Station. The contractor was Lim Weng Ching. The Town Hall has been the venue of many significant events. The Indian poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore once addressed a meeting of Perak’s English and vernacular school teachers here in the late 1930s. The Malay Nationalist Party, the first political party formed in Malaya, held its inaugural congress in the Ipoh Town Hall from 30 November to 3 December 1945, attended by more than 300 people from all over Malaya. From 1948, the town hall served as the district police headquarters for some years.