Before the 1800s, the professions of architect, mason and builder were often combined for all but the grandest buildings. The demand for new buildings such as town halls, hospitals, schools, church renovations and housing saw the emergence of local professional architects. Oxford-based architect Henry James Tollitt was commissioned to design Thame Town Hall.

Tollitt was a Victorian self-made
man. Born to a publican in Uxbridge, he became an architect aged 15, training under well-known Oxford architect William Wilkinson (whose commissions included Lord Williams’s Upper School in Thame).

By 1887, Tollitt lived in a substantial house in Oxford. Two of his sons attended Lincoln College in Oxford. Tollitt served as County Surveyor for Oxfordshire, a role largely focused on roads and bridges, which grew in importance throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.