From the mid-fourteenth century onwards, the hall's secondary use as a Council House, with Coventry's first mayor, John Ward, was created in the Guildhall in 1349. This annual ceremony of 'mayor making' continued practically uninterrupted in the hall until 2002 when growing attendance required it to be moved to the larger space of the new Cathedral.

After the guilds were dissolved in 1552, the hall remained in use by the council, although by the late nineteenth century, most day-to-day council businesses had moved to new buildings, and some rooms at the Guildhall were even being rented to tenants.

Alongside civic meetings and banquets, the hall also functioned on occasions as a theatre, its size, acoustics and profile making it an ideal location for such entertainment. It is almost certain that Shakespeare came to the city as a performer during his acting career, and the Guildhall would have provided the main venue for these performances. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the Guildhall witnessed frequent performances by the famed actress Sarah Siddons.

Throughout its history, the building served the council in several unusual ways, including as an Armoury during the English Civil War and even as a soup kitchen for weavers who had been left destitute by a collapse in their trade in the nineteenth century. In 1779, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had requested to preach in the Guildhall rather than outdoors during a thunderstorm. The mayor refused permission in favour of a dancing master's class.