What do you think is upstairs at the Guildhall?

If you’ve crossed Cathedral Square for years without knowing, you’re probably not alone. The arches are familiar. The room above them is less so.

For nearly sixty years, that upper room was where Peterborough’s council met.

Before the Town Hall opened on Bridge Street in 1933, council business was conducted in this much smaller building overlooking the square.

But the Guildhall was already more than two centuries old when the council began using it.

Why leave the ground floor open?

The building was completed in 1671 by local master mason John Lovin a skilled builder who worked with stone.

The space beneath its arches accommodated market trading.

The building is also known as the Butter Cross, a name associated with the dairy market here.

Picture the arrangement: a covered place for buying and selling at street level, with a room above for meetings.

Those open arches had a purpose beyond looking attractive in photographs.

It’s a detail you can appreciate from the square. Next time you pass, look at how the upper floor sits above the trading space.

A royal connection above the arches

Look up and you’ll also see the Royal Arms of Charles II the heraldic design identifying the monarch.

Peterborough Civic Society records that the Guildhall was erected to celebrate the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, when Charles II became king after the period in which England had been governed without one.

That puts the building in a very different Peterborough: centuries before Queensgate, the railway station or the shopping streets we recognise today.

The Guildhall is Grade II* listed. This means it has legal protection as a particularly important historic building.

When the council met upstairs

Peterborough gained its borough council in 1874.

Its meetings took place in the Guildhall’s upper chamber—simply another word for the meeting room until the new Town Hall opened in 1933.

So the building many of us now use as a meeting point once helped run the city.

That history also explains why its name can be confusing.

The Guildhall and the Town Hall are different buildings, but both have served as places for local government.

Have a look next time you’re in the square

You can appreciate the arches, upper floor and royal decoration from Cathedral Square.

If you’re hoping to see inside, you'll be disappointed because there is no public entry due to safety concerns.

 Local officials have discussed feasibility studies to potentially turn the upper floor into a usable community or performance space, but interior access remains restricted for the foreseeable future.

For an everyday visit, take a few minutes to look at the building and read its blue plaque.

Knowing what happened upstairs and beneath the arches gives you more to notice on a route you may have walked hundreds of times.

Have you ever been upstairs at the Guildhall or know anyone who has? 

Tell us when you visited and what do you remember. 

Or nominate another Peterborough building you’ve always wanted to know more about.