The New Guildhall is a complex of municipal government buildings occupying the site of Conti's old Guildhall, the former headquarters of the city's merchant guilds. The States of Conti purchased the vacant building in the aftermath of the abolition of the guilds in 2009, and two years later approved a ƒ3 million redevelopment scheme for the site (the cost subsequently rose to ƒ3.74 million to accommodate the expansion of the bureaucratic state in the period to 2016 and the need for additional office space). As the seat of government and the nerve centre of Conti's administrative machinery of state, the New Guildhall houses the bailiwick's principal governmental institutions and public bodies: the States of Conti, the Council of Ten, the State Archives and the Office of Despatches. The comp